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APOLOGETICA 


ELEMENTARY   APOLOGETICS 

FOR 

PULPIT   AND   PEW 


BY 

The  Rev.  P.  A.  HALPIN 


NEW  YORK 
JOSEPH    F.    WAGNER 


Mhil  <©bitftat 

REMIGIUS   LAFORT,  S.T.L. 

Censor  Lihrorum 

LOAN  STACK 
3Impnmatur 

4* JOANNES   M.    FARLEY,    D.D. 

Archiepiscopus 

New  York  September  5,  1904 


Copyright,  1905,  by  Joseph  P.  Wagner,  New  York 


Contenta* 


Page 

Preface  v 

I.  Catholic  Loyalty i 

II.  The  Rocks  which  wreck  Faith 4 

III.  Reason  is  a  sufficient  Guide  for  Me 6 

IV.  What  is  Faith  ? 8 

V.  The  Uses  of  Reason 10 

VI.  The  Abuses  of  Reason 12 

VII.  Some  Safeguards  of  Faith 14 

VIII.  The  Boldness  of  Unbelief 16 

IX.  Why  Men  doubt  in  Matters  of  Faith        ....  18 

X.  Of  what  Use  is  Religion  ? .20 

XI.  One  Religion  is  as  Good  as  Another         ....  22 

XII.  There  is  no  God 24 

XIII.  There  is  no  God 26 

XIV.  There  is  no  God 28 

XV.  There  is  no  God 30 

XVI.  There  is  no  God .32 

XVII.  There  is  no  God 34 

XVIII.  There  is  no  God 36 

XIX.  There  is  no  God 38 

XX.  God  can  not  be  known 40 

XXI.  God  can  not  be  known 43 

XXII.  Miracles  are  an  Absurdity 46 

XXIII.  Miracles  are  Incredible 49 

XXIV.  Mysteries  are  Unworthy  of  the  Human  Mind  ...  52 

XXV.  God  does  not  Care  for  the  World 55 

XXVI.  God  does  not  Care  for  the  World 58 

XXVII.  God  does  not  Care  for  the  World 60 


iv  CONTENTS, 

Page 

XXVIII.  God  does  not  Care  for  His  World 63 

XXIX.  God  Cares  not  for  His  World 66 

XXX.  God  has  no  Care  for  His  World 68 

XXXI.  God  has  no  Care  for  His  World 71 

XXXII.  God  exercises  no  Providence  over  His  World  ...  73 

XXXIII.  God  is  unsolicitous  for  Souls 76 

XXXIV.  God  is  not  solicitous  for  Souls 79 

XXXV.  God's  Providence  stretches  not  out  over  Souls       .         .  82 

XXXVI.  God's  Providence  does  not  protect  Souls  ....  85 

XXXVII.  There  is  no  Hereafter 88 

XXXVIII.  There  is  no  Hereafter 91 

XXXIX.  There  is  no  Hereafter 94 

XL.            There  is  no  Hereafter 97 

XLI.           There  is  no  Hereafter 100 

XLII.         There  is  no  Hereafter 103 

XLIII.        There  is  no  Hereafter 106 

XLIV.       Jesus  Christ  only  a  Man 109 

XLV.          Christ  a  Man  Only 112 

XLVI.        Christ  a  Man  Only 115 

XLVII.      Christ  was  a  Man  Only 118 

XLVIII.     Christ  a  Mere  Man  Only 121 

XLIX.        Christ  a  Mere  Man 124 

L.               There  is  no  Eternal  Punishment 127 

LI.             There  is  no  Eternal  Punishment 130 

LII.            There  is  no  Eternal  Punishment 132 


preface. 


THE  chapters  contained  in  these  pages  are  an  attempt  to  suggest  a 
method  of  presenting  the  basic  facts  of  Christianity  in  the  light  of 
reason  alone.  As  much  as  possible  the  arguments  advanced  make  no  appeal 
to  divine  revelation.  They  contain  proofs  drawn  from  natural  sources  only. 
They  are  an  essay  in  the  direction  of  sustaining  that  the  teachings  of 
religion  are  eminently  reasonable.  They  are  an  endeavor  to  show  that 
man,  led  solely  by  his  reason,  is  compelled  to  admit  that,  of  all  the  views 
entertained  by  mankind  relatively  to  the  origin  and  destiny  of  the  race, 
that  view  alone  is  to  be  accepted  which  is  upheld  by  Christianity,  and 
especially  by  the  Catholic  Church.  Infidelity  has  had  the  ear  of  humanity 
smce  the  beginning.  The  reason  therefor  is  discoverable  in  this,  that  it 
has  pandered  to  the  common  desire  to  remove  all  the  restrictions  with 
which  religion,  divinely  inspired,  has  sought  to  impose  limits  on  physical 
freedom,  has  sought  to  inculcate  the  saving  idea  that  there  is  a  law  decreed 
in  heaven  which  coerces,  with  moral  pressure,  the  lower  inclinations  of 
human  nature.  The  plan  is  a  very  simple  one.  It  discusses  all  the 
watchwords  of  incredulity  which  have  had  such  destructive  sway.  It  aims 
at  demonstrating,  by  reason  only,  that  these  rallying  cries  are  only  lures  to 
individual  debasement  and  ultimate  loss.  It  has  touched  upon  the  limita- 
tions of  reason.  It  has  offered  to  point  out  the  proper  function  of  intel- 
ligence and  to  assign  to  it  its  proper  place  and  most  becoming  attitude. 
These  preliminary  notions  established,  the  plan  proceeds  to  take  up  the 
insensate  clamor  that  there  is  no  religion,  no  God,  no  hereafter,  no  hell, 
no  eternity,  and  of  course  does  not  omit  that  pivotal  dogma  that  Christ  is 
neither  a  myth  nor  a  man  only,  but  God  of  God,  Light  of  Light,  very  God 
of  very  God.  That  the  work  has  been  imperfectly  done  is  transparent. 
These  chapters  are  skeletons,  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word.  There  is  no 
flesh  upon  the  bones,  there  is  no  blood  in  the  veins,  there  are  neither 

V 


vi  PREFACE, 

veins  nor  arteries.  The  compilation  is  only  a  suggestion,  but  as  such  not 
entirely  valueless.  There  is  no  doubt  that  churchgoers  need  instruction 
and  need  enlightenment  upon  the  very  subjects  treated  herein  and,  are 
avid  of  information  that  makes  no  call  upon  their  faith,  but  rather  on  their 
minds.  The  matter  for  these  sketches  was  found  already  prepared  in  the 
theologies  and  philosophies  used  in  our  colleges  and  seminaries.  With 
these  remarks  we  leave  our  experiment  to  the  merciful  consideration  of 
all  who  may  be  patient  enough  to  look  over  these  pages. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


Apologetica^ 


A  G>urse  of  Fifty-two  Sketches  for  Short  Sermons  on  Popular 

Topics  and  Questions^  Maintaining^  Explaining:^  and 

Defending:  the  Catholic  Position* 


I.    CatboUc  Xo?aIt?. 

Introduction. — The  need  of  Catholic  loyalty,  that  is,  the  habit  of 
fidelity  to  our  Catholic  Church  in  its  teachings  and  precepts.  This 
loyalty  which  is  needed  always,  but  especially  now,  is  compacted  of 
loyalty  of  life  or  living,  loyalty  of  will,  loyalty  of  reason. 

1.  Loyalty  to  the  life  enforced  by  Catholic  principle  is  the  best 
and  only  life  worth  living. 

2.  Loyalty  of  will — adhesion  of  our  will  to  all  God  proposes  to  the 
Christian  through  the  Church. 

3.  Loyalty  of  reason,  which  rounds  off  the  whole  loyalty  of  the 
Catholic. 

Loyalty  is  fidelity.  It  may  mean  being  true  to  friends,  to  country, 
to  ourselves,  to  principles,  to  God.  Fidelity  to  God  is  highest  and 
most  imperative.  This  loyalty  is  an  adhesion  to  God  in  all  His  rela- 
tions to  man.    God's  relation  to  us  finds  its  most  perfect  expression 

z 


2  APOLOGETICA, 

in  what  He  has  taught  us  to  believe  and  to  do.  In  other  words,  it  is 
the  religion  or  the  Church  which  He  has  established  for  our  guidance 
in  belief  and  conduct.  This  loyalty  is  always  a  duty,  but  in  these 
times  wherein  so  much  opposition  to  the  Church  exists  it  is  more 
than  ever  an  obligation.  The  loyalty  of  the  Catholic  to  his  religion 
manifests  itself  in  three  ways.  It  is  threefold  devotion  or  loyalty 
of  mind,  of  will,  of  life. 

I.  Loyalty  of  Life  is  living  according  to  the  dictates  of  religion.  It 
is  shaping  our  whole  conduct  according  to  the  precepts  of  the  Church. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  the  oldest  and 
the  only  Church.  By  the  excellence  of  its  notes  and  marks  it  should 
elicit  devotion.  It  is  the  essential  pattern  of  all  living.  It  makes  for 
the  only  life  worth  living.  There  are  outside  the  Church  beautiful 
lives,  but  they  are  beautiful  only  inasmuch  as  they  approximate  the 
teachings  of  the  Church  and  are  imperfect  wherein  they  recede  from 
those  teachings.  Among  the  reasons  which  call  for  this  loyalty  of 
life  are  the  splendor  of  Catholic  truth  and  Catholic  ethics  and  all  that 
the  Church  has  it  in  her  power  to  do  for  the  individual  here  and  here- 
after, for  the  family  and  the  country — loyalty  during  life  and  until 
and  in  death. 

II.  Loyalty  of  Will.  This  is  adhesion  of  our  will  to  the  will  of 
the  Church.  It  is  implied  in  life-loyalty,  but  it  goes  to  the  further 
length  of  not  only  strengthening  exterior  living,  but  of  permeating 
the  interior  man  with  the  beautifying  and  vivifying  principles  of 
Catholicity.  The  will  must  be  loyally  Catholic.  It  must,  as  it  can, 
control  the  whole  man.  It  must  dictate  loyalty  to  all  the  faculties 
and  senses  of  man.  It  must  command  unquestioning  faith  and  heroic, 
if  necessary,  charity.  It  is  well  to  remember  that  our  will  is  our 
own.  We  may  do  with  it  as  we  please.  If  inclined  to  doubt,  the  will 
may  compel  assent ;  if  disinclined  to  righteous  conduct,  the  will  may 


CATHOLIC   LOYALTY.  3 

compel  action.    The  life  and  the  strength  of  the  will  are  maintained 
by  grace  and  the  channels  of  grace — i.  e.,  sacraments. 

III.  Loyalty  of  Reason.  We  have,  perhaps,  against  all  laws  of 
sequence  reserved  this  for  the  last  place.  This  plan  is  introductory 
to  a  series  which  aims  at  showing  the  rational  foundations  of  our 
faith  and  at  presenting  answers  to  the  flippant,  though  dangerous, 
objections  which  are  the  cant  words  of  the  age.  Reason-loyalty  is 
the  most  needed.  This  loyalty  is  the  subjecting  our  reason  to  every- 
thing taught  by  the  Church.  It  means  unconditional,  though  not 
servile,  surrender.  The  first  element  of  this  devotion  is  found  in 
humility  of  reason,  in  acknowledging  its  limitations,  in  an  unwilling- 
ness to  take  for  granted  what  is  alleged  against  revelation,  in  a  dis- 
position of  allegiance  running  through  all  discussion.  The  essential 
altitude  of  reason  is  one  whereby  it  confesses  that  God  and  the 
Church  can  not  be  mistaken,  but  that  it  itself  may  and  can  be  at 
fault.  The  province  of  reason  will  be  examined  hereinafter  and  its 
legitimate  obligations  established.  Many  are  the  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  this  triple  loyalty.  Enough  is  it  to  enumerate  peace 
of  mind,  loftiness  of  principle,  happiness  in  this  world  and  the  next. 


II.   ^be  •Rochs  TOblcb  Mrecft  jfaltb. 

Introduction. — There  is  none  of  a  man's  possessions  which  is  to 
be  more  carefully  protected  than  his  faith.  There  is  not  one  of  his 
holdings  which  is  more  constantly  threatened.  Sailing  over  life's 
sea,  rocks  imperiling  his  faith  are  piercing  the  waves  everywhere, 
and  narrow  indeed  is  the  channel  through  which  he  is  to  pilot  his 
way  in  safety.  We  assume  that  faith  is  more  precious  to  him  than 
anything  else  that  is  his.  It  is  not  an  assumption ;  it  is  a  certainty, 
and  a  dread  one. 

I.  What  is  a  man's  faith  to  him?  Faith  is  the  "  argument  of  the 
unseen."  It  is  a  chart  well  mapped  out  and  marking  unmistakably 
the  points  of  danger  on  the  ocean  of  life.  It  describes  the  port 
whence  he  sails ;  it  directs,  in  all  kinds  of  weather,  his  journey  toward 
the  haven  of  his  destiny.  It  assures  him  that  he  derives  his  being 
from  God — that  his  whole  being  must  tend  Godward,  and  it  shows 
him  the  only  way.  It  speaks  of  the  unseen — of  the  unseen  of  his 
past,  of  his  present,  of  his  future.  It  furnishes  him  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  things  that  have  been  and  are  and  will  be.  It  brings 
within  his  ken  the  whole  path  of  salvation.  Impossible  is  it  to  calcu- 
late the  advantages  of  faith.  Impossible  almost  is  it  to  enumerate 
them.    Such  being  the  pricelessness  of  faith,  what  are — 

II.  Its  perils?  The  perils  which  faith  is  exposed  to  3ire  manifold 
and  ubiquitous  and  extreme  and  insidious.  They  spring  from  every 
quarter.  They  wear  the  guise  of  friendship ;  they  borrow  the  garb 
of  angels  of  light;  they  underlie  adversity;  they  go  hand  in  hand 
with  success.  Society  is  bristling  with  those  dangers ;  so  is  wealth, 
and  so,  beyond  a  doubt,  is  the  flesh.    The  arch  enemy  of  mankind 

4 


THE   ROCKS    WHICH    WRECK   FAITH,  5 

has  his  spear  raised  ever  to  wound  and,  if  possible,  kill  faith.  The 
world  passes  it  by — faith  is  not  fashionable;  it  savors  too  much  of 
poverty  and  low  birth  and  ignorance.  Society  sometimes  wears  its 
livery  because  it  is  a  token  of  respectability.  But  faith  is  a  reproach 
to  the  thoughts  and  workings  of  society;  is  a  hindrance;  is  a 
menace  to  its  pleasures.  The  flesh  has  views  diametrically  opposed  to 
those  of  faith.  Let  us  eat  and  drink  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow 
we  die.  Such  is  the  chorus  of  the  flesh,  and  the  tones  of  faith  can 
not  be  heard,  so  boisterous  is  the  singing  of  the  flesh,  or,  if  heard, 
they  weaken  the  enthusiasm  and  mar  the  gaiety.  As  for  the  devil — 
he  is  a  murderer  and  a  liar  from  the  beginning,  and  faith  is  his  per- 
sistent and  indomitable  foe  and  accuser  and  judge. 

III.  Other  dangers.  Ignorance  of  the  individual.  He  does  not 
know  even  the  essentials  of  his  faith.  What  he  knows  not,  he  loves 
not,  and  if  it  bars  his  way,  he  hates.  The  ambition  and  the  greed 
and  the  selfishness  of  the  individual  weaken  faith.  So  does  riotous 
living;  so  do  the  passions  gratified  unlawfully;  so  does  evil  com- 
panionship; so  likewise  free  and  loose  thinking  about  matters  of 
faith.  More  than  anything  else  the  lawless  literature  of  the  day — 
books  that  are  immoral,  books  atheistic,  books  cynical,  books  with- 
out ideals  higher  than  the  inspirations  of  mere  nature,  books  ridicul- 
ing, caricaturing  religion,  its  tenets  and  practices.  These  are  the 
dangers.  The  need  of  guarding  against  them  is  obvious.  Keep 
the  faith.    It  will  keep  you  here  and  hereafter. 


III.    1?ea6on  I0  a  SuWcient  6ul^e  for  (tic. 

Introduction. — It  is  hard  to  say  which  is  the  more  culpable  or 
more  dangerous — disloyalty  of  words  or  disloyalty  of  action.  Wher- 
ever the  greater  guilt  lies,  this  much  is  certain,  that  expressions 
against  our  faith — so-called  maxims  derogatory  to  our  Church — 
are  caught  up  even  by  children,  and  so  are  more  widely  spread  and 
in  this  time  of  so-called  independent  thought  become  war  cries 
around  which  the  masses  unfortunately  are  only  too  glad  to  rally.  I 
must  use  very  frequently  the  epithet  "  so-called  "  because  investiga- 
tion will  reveal  that  the  terms  express  principles  or  facts  which  have 
no  foundation  in  reason  or  reality. 

I.  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  at  the  head  of  this  sketch  ? 
It  means  that  my  reason  is  sufficient  for  me  in  everything.  It  means 
that  by  the  unaided  light  of  my  reason  I  find  the  solution  of  all  the 
problems  of  existence.  It  means  that  I  need  neither  God  nor  the 
Church  nor  any  man  for  my  teacher.  I  can  discover  alone  all  that 
is  needed  to  be  known  regarding  this  life  and  the  other.  This 
crude  putting  of  the  significance  of  the  phrase  used  by  so  many  is 
startling.  Nay,  it  is  more — it  is  shocking.  What  is  the  truth  of  the 
matter  ?  It  is  not  a  phrase  that  fact  or  reason  is  able  to  substantiate. 
What  facts  can  it  bring  to  its  aid  ?  Collect  all  the  experience  of  the 
past.  Has  any  one  man's  reason  sufficed  to  enlighten  him  as  to  all 
that  is  required  for  his  development  as  a  man  living  with  other  men 
and  depending  on  some  force  outside  of  himself  for  his  coming  into 
or  his  going  out  of  life  ?  Has  the  collective  reason  of  the  race  been 
sufficient  ?  The  pages  of  history  give  the  reply.  What  has  been  the 
teaching  of  Paganism?     What  is  the  teaching  of  philosophy  so- 

6 


REASON  IS  A    SUFFICIENT   GUIDE   FOR   ME.       7 

called  ?  Has  there  been  certainty,  or  conviction,  or  persuasion  ?  Has 
there  been  accord?  Have  all  discovered  the  same  God,  the  same 
duties,  the  same  obligations,  the  same  meaning  of  life?  What  has 
been  said  about  God  and  religion  in  previous  ages  and  what  is  being 
said  now?  No  single  man  has  found  out  every  truth  or  any  truth 
plenarily.  The  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  combined  efforts  of  the 
learned  when  they  relied  on  reason  alone,  and  the  same  will  have  to 
be  said  until  the  end. 

n.  The  "  principle  "  is  not  supported  by  reason.  Reason  can 
not  prove  that  of  itself  it  is  sufficient  to  guide  man  in  the  intricacies 
of  existence.  First,  fact  disproves  emphatically  the  assertion  of  the 
all  sufficing  quality  of  reason.  Reason  shows  us  the  impotency  of 
itself  in  the  settlement  of  what  is  most  obvious.  What  is  the  first 
fact  that  is  forced  upon  individual  reason  ?  The  fact  that  it  is  lim- 
ited; that  its  vision  has  a  very  near  horizon;  that  there  are  things 
not  only  above  or  beyond  it  or  below  it,  but  apparently  upon  its 
level  which  it  sees  not,  or,  if  it  does  see,  sees  very  dimly.  Reason 
knows  that  it  is  fallible  as  well  as  limited — fallible  inasmuch  as 
from  very  patent  facts  it  deduces  wrong  conclusions.  A  man  knows 
that  his  reason  has  been  busier  correcting  old  views  than  making 
new  ones.  The  reasonable  conclusion  that  the  most  experienced  man 
evolves  is  that  he  has  made  many  mistakes  in  the  use  of  his  reason, 
that  it  is  very  dark  therein,  that  his  whole  being  yearns  for  a  light 
which  reason  alone  can  not  enkindle. 


IV.    Mbat  i0  faitb? 

Introduction. — The  more  we  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  great 
gift  of  faith,  the  more  we  may  be  impelled  to  withstand  all  attacks 
against  it,  the  more  we  may  be  animated  to  estimate  its  value  and 
to  prize  it  at  its  true  worth.    So  let  it  be  considered  first,  that : 

I.  Faith  is  a  gift.  It  is  ours  only  by  presentation.  We  have 
not  begotten  it;  we  have  not  stretched  out  our  hands  for  it  and 
seized  it.  It  is  not  ours  to  summon  as  we  please.  There  are 
myriads  in  the  world  looking  for  it.  It  is  a  donation.  It  is 
gratuitous.  It  comes  from  God,  and  no  one  forced  Him  to  be- 
stow it.  Every  Catholic,  as  his  reason  shows,  as  he  awakens  into 
consciousness  sooner  or  later,  finds  himself  in  possession  of  it. 
God  is  not  an  "  Indian  giver."  He  never  takes  back  faith  from  an 
individual  once  He  grants  it.  Yet  it  disappears  sometimes,  or 
rather  often,  from  the  hold  of  the  possessor.  Like  every  other 
gift,  the  gift,  for  example,  of  existence,  God's  concurrence,  in  order 
to  conserve  it,  is  absolutely  indispensable.  When  a  man  loses  his 
faith  he  interposes  between  God's  action  and  his  possession  an  ob- 
stacle something  like  the  short-circuiting  of  an  electrical  current — ^the 
burning  out  of  a  fuse,  for  instance — and  lo!  there  is  no  inter- 
mediary between  God  and  the  soul  in  the  matter  of  faith^  and  the 
grand,  bright  light  goes  out,  and  "  life  eternal  is  lost  and  the  man 
does  not  know  "  Thee — only  true  God  and  Him  whom  Thou  hast 
sent  Christ  Jesus  (John  xvii.  3).  It  is  to  be  understood  that  nc 
man  loses  the  gift  of  faith  save  by  his  own  fault.  God  never  takes 
it  away.    Man  rejects  it  or  man  throws  it  from  him. 

8 


WHAT  IS  FAITH f  9 

II.  Faith  is  a  gift  of  transcendent  excellence,  (a)  It  is  the 
foundation,  the  corner,  the  keystone  of  the  Church,  (b)  The 
root  of  that  tree  Nabuchodonosor  saw  in  his  dream  (Dan.  iv.  7). 
(c)  The  beginning  of  salvation,  the  origin  of  justification,  (d) 
It  raises  us  above  brutes,  above  the  senses,  (e)  It  elevates  us 
above  nature;  it  supernaturalizes  us.  (/)  It  is  the  assimilation 
of  our  nature  with  the  divine  nature,  (g)  It  is  the  dawning  of 
the  beatific  vision,  (h)  It  is  a  new  sense,  telescopic  in  its  powers, 
(t)  It  is  certainty  in  doubt.  (;)  A  haven  in  the  storm,  {k)  It 
is  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life. 

III.  It  is  delicate  beyond  the  delicacy  of  anything  in  nature. 
The  hot  breath  of  passion  melts  it  as  the  sun  dissolves  the  frost 
creations  on  our  windows  or  in  the  forest.  It  is  as  delicate  as 
chastity,  as  charity.  The  Christian  graces  are  Chastity,  Charity, 
Faith.     They  wither  at  a  touch — they  are  killed  by  a  thought. 

Conclusion. — Our  care  of  this  rare  gift  should  be  commensurate 
with  its  preciousness.  (Cf.  Hurter,  Vol.  I,  and  S.S.,  passim  et 
ubique,) 


V.    Zbe  '\IiBCB  of  1Rea0on, 

Introduction. — Reason  is  the  greatest  human  prerogative.  It 
distinguishes  man  from  all  the  inferior  orders  of  creation.  By  it 
he  is  superior  to  the  inanimate,  the  vegetable,  the  animal  world. 
Reason  is  given  man  to  keep  him  from  sinking  below  his  inherited 
level,  below  the  beasts,  below  inert  nature.  It  is  a  superadded 
sense,  if  the  term  may  be  used.  It  is  within  his  control  to  a  large 
degree;  it  is  beyond  his  command  in,  perhaps,  a  still  larger  de- 
gree.   What  is  it  and  what  are  its  uses? 

I.  It  is  a  seeing  faculty;  it  is  the  immaterial  eye  of  the  indi- 
vidual. It  perceives.  Its  object  is  truth.  It  does  not  make  truth, 
no  more  than  any  eye  creates  the  objects  depicted  upon  its  retina. 
The  eye  does  not  bring  into  being  the  thing  it  looks  upon — that 
thing  simply  floats  into  the  area  of  its  vision.  Were  there  no  such 
object  man  would  not  behold  it.  For  instance,  the  reason,  or  the 
intellect  of  man,  does  not  make  it  true  that  two  and  two  are  four, 
but  because  two  and  two  are  four  the  mind  sees  it  to  be  so. 
Run  through  the  wide  domain  of  facts  intellectual,  axioms, 
maxims,  principles  and  the  like — these  facts  are  not  products  of 
the  mind;  they  simply  are  and  present  themselves  to  the  mind 
under  investigating  or  favoring  conditions.  All  this  makes  for 
the  dependence  not  of  truth  upon  the  reason  or  mind,  but  for  the 
dependence  of  mind,  reason — call  it  what  you  will — upon  truth. 
We  talk  of  creation  in  a  literary  sense.  In  the  strictest  meaning, 
creation,  that  is,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  creation  signifies 
the  making  of  something  out  of  nothing,  there  is  no  such  thing 

lO 


THE    USES    OF   REASON.  ii 

in  the  intellectual  order,  whether  it  be  angelic  or  divine.  Even 
God  does  not  create  truth.  God  is  Truth,  and  from  Him  all  truth 
flows  into  every  created  mind.  Literary  creation  would,  at  best, 
be  only  the  harmonious  wedding  of  truths  already  known  or  the 
offspring  thereby  generated. 

II.  Another  use  of  reason  is  the  comparing  one  truth  with  an- 
other, and  from  the  comparison  deducing  other  intellectual  facts — 
in  TK'eighing  the  values  of  arguments  adduced  in  support  of  some 
proposition  advanced.  Hence,  may  be  deduced  the  principal 
function  of  reason — in  other  words,  its  principal  use.  Its  duty 
is  not  to  imagine;  imagination  is  another  faculty  below  and  sub- 
ordinate to  reason;  nor  to  fancy,  which  is  practically  the  same 
thing.  Neither  is  its  duty  to  originate.  There  will  be  no  difficulty 
in  understanding  how  originating  in  all  matters,  and  especially  in 
religious  matters,  is  the  parent  of  absurdity  and  error.  If  reason, 
unbiased,  keeps  its  eye  not  on  itself  or  its  own  vagaries,  but  on  the 
light;  if  it  consult  neither  feeling  nor  interest,  but  only  fact  or 
truth,  the  outcome  will  be  the  discovery  of  all  that  is  needful  in 
many  things,  but  especially  in  discriminating  between  what  is  false 
and  true  in  religion. 


VI.    Zl)c  W)mcB  of  1?ea0om 

Introduction.. — Reason  is  given  man  to  enable  him  to  ascertain 
the  truth  in  all  things  beneficial  to  his  material  welfare.  Above  all  to 
his  spiritual  welfare — the  welfare  of  his  higher,  or  rather,  highest 
nature.  Properly  used — used  as  indicated  in  the  last  instruction — 
used  as  its  very  nature  imperiously  demands — it  will  lead  to  good ; 
abused  it  will  just  as  inevitably  lead  to  disaster.  It  is  a  pity  that  we 
must  confess  that  man,  a  reasonable  creature,  has  been  most  irrational 
in  the  use  of  that  very  faculty  whereby  it  is  in  his  power  to  rise 
to  a  height  just  a  little  lower  than  that  of  the  angels.  Man  abuses 
his  reason. 

I.  Naturally  all  the  misuse  a  man  makes  of  his  reason  comes  from 
his  misconception  of  the  nature  and  object  and  limits  of  that  sublime 
faculty.  He  mistakes  its  nature,  and,  therefore,  supposes  that  it  is 
in  its  power  to  make  or  unmake  truth,  that  within  the  grasp  of  his 
denial  and  admission  lies  the  existence  of  truth.  In  another  instruc- 
tion we  learned  that  reason  does  not  make  truth,  but  that  truth  is 
made,  or,  rather,  is  for  it,  that  truth  existed  before  any  human 
mind,  as  the  spectacle  of  the  universe  was  before  any  human  eye. 

II.  Man  abuses  the  reason  which  God  has  given  him  by  suppos- 
ing that  the  whole  region  of  truth  is  his  to  discover,  to  roam  over, 
to  command.  He  so  much  revels  in  his  reason,  and  his  reason  is  so 
much  of  a  joy  to  him,  that  he  allows  it  to  gallop  blindly,  reinlessly, 
hither  and  thither,  as  its  own  sweet  will  dictates.  In  other  words, 
liberty  of  thought  is  his  slogan.  A  man  can  think  what  he  pleases 
and  as  he  pleases.     It  is  noticeable  that  one  allows  reason  more 


THE   ABUSES    OF   REASON.  13 

liberty  than  one  allows  the  senses,  say,  for  there  are  things  from 
which  one  turns  away  and  against  which  one  shuts  one's  eyes.  In 
thought,  so  the  axiom  permits,  there  is  no  restriction.  This  freedom 
of  license  of  thought  leads  to  boldness.  And  so  another  abuse  of 
reason  is, 

III.  Unlimitation.  No  bounds  to  the  gambols  of  this  faculty. 
No  sacredness.  No  horizons.  No  remembering  that  there  are 
things  twixt  heaven  and  earth  that  are  not  dreamed  of  by  reason. 
This  limitlessness  of  reason*s  prerogatives  begets  a  spirit  of  reckless 
intrusiveness,  for  it  assumes  to  be  the  sole  umpire  in  matters  of 
truth  and  falsehood,  of  good  and  evil.  In  its  wanton  sportiveness  it 
is — is  reason — its  own  law,  and  it  legislates  for  God  and  man,  for 
time  and  eternity.  This  little  farthing  rushlight  aims  at  lighting 
up  the  darkness  of  the  immensities.  Alas !  What  is  the  corrective  ? 
Watch  the  reaction  of  such  excesses  in  history  and  in  the  race,  in  the 
family  and  the  individual. 


VII.    Some  Safe0uart)6  of  ifaitb. 

Introduction. — If  it  is  important  to  save  one's  life,  it  is  more  im- 
portant to  save  one's  soul,  whence  arises  the  momentousness  of  pro- 
tecting one's  faith.  Our  view  is  rather  a  rational  one  than  a  spiritual 
one,  and  hence  the  means  indicated  are  all  in  the  line  of  reason,  and 
directed  against  the  difficulties  which  an  inflated  and  rampant 
rationalism  creates  against  faith  and  in  favor  of  so-called  mental 
independence. 

I.  One  safeguard  lies  in  a  man's  using  his  reason,  not  his  imagi- 
nation nor  his  fancy — lies  in  his  following  not  the  bent  or  dictation 
of  his  passions,  or  of  self-interest,  or  of  policy,  or  of  human  respect, 
but  the  inexorable  rules  of  logic.  To  put  it  more  simply,  he  must 
be  really  reasonable,  truly  rational.  Where  a  man  can,  let  him  think 
for  himself ;  where  he  can  not,  let  him  consult  those  v/ho  are  in  a  posi- 
tion to  help  him.  This  will  form  for  him  the  very  profitable  habit 
of  not  readily  accepting  all  the  teachings  and  gospels  on  matters  of 
faith  which  are  continually  coming  into  existence  and  just  as  rapidly 
disappearing.  The  one  great  fact  which  takes  up  nearly  all  the 
spaces  of  history  is  the  extravagant  caperings  of  the  human  mind  in 
matters  of  religion.  This  fact  is  as  instructive  as  it  is  vast.  It  forces 
one  to  a  salutary  distrust  of  one's  own  views.  It  compels  one  to 
look  beyond  one's  self  for  light  and  guidance.  To  the  honest  man 
all  seems  so  dark  and  uncertain  that  he  looks  around  for  some  land- 
marks to  keep  him  in  the  path.  Thus,  an  indispensable  condition  of 
safety  in  this  all  important  matter  of  faith  would  seem  to  be  the 
need  of  being  on  one's  guard  against  what  might  be  called  the  iin- 

14 


SOME   SAFEGUARDS    OF   FAITH.  15 

tutored  impulses  of  reason  which  invariably  culminate  in  irrational 
conclusions.  The  secure  attitude  seems  to  be  one  of  distrust.  All 
this  might  be  maximized  thus:  Slowness  in  admitting  what  the 
populace  readily  catches  up.  Find  the  one  who  knows — find  the  ac- 
credited teacher. 

II.  The  second  safeguard  is  the  search  after  instruction,  after 
full  information,  after  facts.  The  ignorance  of  Catholics  concerning 
their  Church  is  as  widespread  as  it  is  lamentable  and  fatal.  Their 
ignorance  of  the  textual  or  surface  meaning  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church,  their  misunderstanding  of  Catholic  practices.  Catholic  de- 
votions, their  utter  misinformation  on  points  of  Catholic  history  is 
appalling.  Many  are  not  aware  of  what  Catholics  are  obliged  to  be- 
lieve. Few  are  able  to  give  an  honest  inquirer  the  mere  formula  of 
the  simplest  tenets  of  the  Church.  Many  admit,  through  ignorance, 
the  false  doctrines  imputed  to  the  Church,  are  unable,  I  will  not  say 
to  refute,  but  even  to  deny  the  frequent  and  patent  calumnies  which 
are  uttered.  A  man  must  know  his  faith.  To  this  end  he  must 
read,  must  hear,  must  learn.  In  this  wise,  his  knowledge  of  his 
faith  increasing,  his  love  for  it  will  grow,  and  there  will  arise  in  his 
soul  an  ambition  to  protect  his  grand  faith  for  himself,  to  defend 
it  against  calumniators  and  to  propagate  it  among  his  kind. 


VIII.    Zbe  Bolbness  of  lanbellef. 

Introduction. — In  contrast  with  the  modesty  of  faith  and  virtue  in 
general  is  the  effrontery  of  unbelief.  Enemies  of  religion  accuse  its 
votaries  of  dogmatism.  By  dogmatism  they  mean  arrogance  in  stat- 
ing opinions  and  positive  assertion  without  proof.  This  definition,  as 
all  history  attests,  recoils  on  themselves.  Recall  all  the  propositions 
which  have  been  uttered  by  so-called  reformers,  so-called  scientists, 
so-called  philosophers  and  infidels.  We  find  that  their  affirmations 
are: 

I.  Bold  in  the  extreme.  They  are  hold  with  the  shamelessness  of 
hostility.  Who  can  recall  without  shuddering  the  vituperations  of 
Voltaire  and  the  French  philosophists  ?  It  would  be  almost  not  only 
beyond  good  taste,  but  unpardonable  to  repeat  what  has  been  said  by 
the  Gnostics,  by  Luther  and  his  school,  by  the  English  Atheists,  by 
Diderot,  and  others  too  numerous  to  mention.  They  are  bold  with 
the  impudence  of  the  unscientific  nature  of  their  averments.  Their 
conclusions  are  unfounded.  They  reason  contrary  to  all  the  laws  of 
reason.  From  a  particular  and  isolated  fact  they  deduce  general 
laws.  With  a  single  misdemeanor  or  a  few  criminal  acts  they  frame 
an  accusation  against  all  religionists,  all  Churches,  all  authority. 
Witness  the  progress  of  geology  as  against  religion ;  witness  biology 
and  the  cognate  sciences.  Notice  the  hastiness  with  which  they  pro- 
nounce against  faith  on  the  strength  of  a  single  discovery  in  any  of 
the  sciences.  It  is  impossible  for  a  new  planet  or  new  star  or  a  spot 
on  the  sun  to  be  proclaimed,  it  is  impossible  for  a  new  element  or 
new  combination  of  substances  to  be  declared,  without  their  seizing 

i6 


THE   BOLDNESS    OF    UNBELIEF.  17 

the  discovery  as  a  flamboyant  herald  dishonoring  Holy  Scripture  or 
foretelling  the  existence  of  all  creeds.  They  are  hold  with  the  dastard- 
liness  of  falsehood.  They  stick  not  at  a  lie.  They  utter  calumny 
after  calumny.  Their  whole  warfare  has  usurped  the  domain  of 
history  with  battalions  of  lies.  Their  whole  procedure  has  been  a 
"  conspiracy  against  the  truth."  The  whole  labor  of  Apologetics 
may  be  reduced  to  the  task  of  again  and  again  hurling  back  the  same 
falsehoods  in  the  teeth  of  the  adversaries  of  faith.  From  all  this  we 
may  learn : 

II.  Hozv  to  meet  this  boldness  of  unbelief,  ist.  It  behooves  us 
to  be  as  bold  as  they  are,  as  bold  in  denying  as  they  are  in  affirming. 
2d.  They  throw  the  burthen  of  proof  on  us,  whereas  all  the  laws  of 
ratiocination  compel  them  to  exhibit  the  evidence  which  supports 
what  they  allege.  3d.  To  be  assured  that  somewhere  among  the 
enlightened,  among  our  pastors,  our  theologians  there  is  a  satis- 
factory answer  to  their  bold,  ignorant,  false  allegations.  4th.  We 
must  remain  undisturbed,  undismayed.  We  are  in  possession  of  the 
truth.  We  may  not  understand,  but  we  know  what  we  hold  is  true. 
We  know  that  we  are  passing,  or  rather  that  our  faith  is  passing  for 
the  moment  through  a  trial  which  the  faith  of  millions  in  the  last 
two  thousand  years  sustained.  Their  faith  came  out  vindicated, 
purified,  glorified,  and  so  will  it  be  with  ours  after  this  temporary 
struggle. 


IX.    mb^  fIDen  Boubt  in  flDattere  of  Jfaitb. 

Introduction. — We  say  advisedly  doubt,  because  no  one,  Catholic 
or  non-Catholic,  has  ever  been  certain  of  any  proposition  which  con- 
tradicts the  great  truths  of  religion,  revealed  or  natural.  These 
doubts  exist  in  the  minds  of  believers  and  unbelievers.  The  wonder 
to  the  thinking  man  is  how  there  can  exist  any  hesitation  in  assent- 
ing to  the  teachings  of  the  Church,  which  has  been  in  the  forefront 
of  evidence  since  the  coming  of  Christ.  Two  thousand  years  in 
existence,  and  it  wears  no  wrinkle  on  its  majestic  brow.  The  longest 
lived  of  all  the  so-called  Churches,  it  has  lost  none  of  its  vigor ;  it  is 
still  erect  and  has  not  yet  been  attacked  by  any  of  the  forerunners  of 
decrepitude;  assailed  more  repeatedly  and  with  more  hatred  than 
any  other  creed,  it  shows  not  the  mark  of  a  single  scar.  Why,  there- 
fore, do  men  doubt? 

I.  Because  of  indifference.  Men  are  too  busy  in  seeking  a  liveli- 
hood, too  busy  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  and  fame.  They  permit 
themselves  to  be  absorbed  by  the  cares  of  existence.  The  visible 
world  intrudes  itself  more  strenuously  upon  their  attention.  They 
look  not  beyond  these  horizons.  The  body  and  all  that  goes  to  make 
up  its  comfort  completely  fills  their  vision.  The  interests  of  earth 
seem  paramount,  and  they  hesitate  when  they  are  summoned  either 
by  the  voice  of  their  conscience  or  by  the  voice  of  the  legitimate 
teachers.  They  have  learned  the  lesson  by  their  habits  of  thought 
and  by  environment  that  this  world  is  everything  to  which  every- 
thing else  is  subordinate,  and  so  they  walk  along  the  pathway  of  life 
in  ignorance  and  indifference  in  the  question  of  the  eternal  truths, 
and  hence  no  wonder  their  attitude  is  one  of  doubt. 

z8 


WHY  MEN  DOUBT  IN  MATTERS  OF  FAITH.       19 

II.  Because  of  the  passions.  They  deHver  themselves  up  to  the 
exterior  dissipations  of  Hfe.  They  follow  wherever  their  senses  or 
the  gratification  of  their  inclinations  calls  them.  They  become  the 
slaves  of  their  desires,  immersed  in  libertinism.  The  flesh  is  all  in 
all  to  them.  The  spirit  is  weakened.  Yet  they  must  solace  themselves 
in  their  saner  moments.  To  admit  the  teaching  of  faith  would  be  to 
admit  the  folly  and  the  danger  of  their  condition,  would  make  them 
dread  future  retribution.  Reflection  becomes  agony  for  them,  and 
they  console  themselves  by  a  doubting  perhaps  that  what  is  said  of 
God  and  heaven  and  hell  may  be  fiction,  or,  at  any  rate,  exaggerated. 
When  does  a  Catholic  allow  doubt  to  enter  his  soul  ?  Is  it  when  he 
aspires  to  a  better  life?  Is  it  not  rather  when  having  thrown  all 
the  commandments  of  God  to  the  winds  he  elects  to  remain  on  the 
forbidden  paths? 

III.  Because  of  what  we  might  call  the  glamour  of  science.  This 
is  a  scientific  age.  Science  seems  to  have  run  a  prosperous  race 
and  to  have  left  faith  behind.  Science,  when  its  voice  is  heard  in- 
distinctly, seems  to  proclaim  itself  queen,  arbiter  of  matter  and 
thought  in  the  universe.  Among  the  aristocracy  of  intellect  it  is 
more  the  fashion  to  assent  to  the  conclusions  of  science  than  to  the 
declarations  of  faith.  One  can  not  be  a  scientist  and  a  believer. 
Hence  belief  seems  to  smack  of  lack  of  culture,  of  ignorance,  of  the 
masses,  of  the  proletariat.  How  many  are  misled  by  such  views  as 
the  foregoing!  Yet  how  superficial  it  all  is,  and  how  uncertain  the 
foundation  on  which  it  rests  and  how  easily  refuted!  It  may  be 
said  that  of  these  causes  of  doubt  the  most  dangerous  and  the  most 
prolific  is  indifference. 


X.    ®f  Mbat  me  is  -Religion? 

Introduction. —  This  is  a  question  not  seldom  asked.  The  motives 
for  making  this  query  are  not  a  few.  Some  urge  it  because  they  are 
indifferent,  because  it  makes  no  difference  to  them  whether  there  be 
such  a  thing  as  religion  or  not.  Others  because  they  see  so  many 
religionists  no  better,  but  rather  worse,  than  those  who  profess  no 
religion.  Others  because  they  do  not  understand  the  meaning  of  the 
term.  Others  because  they  are  unwilling  to  admit  the  existence  of 
anything  beyond  this  life.  Others  again  because,  so  they  pretend, 
man  has  no  obligations  except  to  himself  and  his  fellow  men.  The 
adversaries  of  religion  in  general  are  those  who  care  not  for  it,  i.  e., 
those  who  are  indifferent,  those  who  are  ignorant,  and  the  materialist 
or  atheist.    It  is  to  be  considered,  therefore, 

I.  What  is  religion  f  A  definition  is  hardly  necessary,  for  it  can 
not  be  reasonably  doubted  that  every  one,  though  unable  to  give  it 
expression,  has  a  conception,  dim  or  clear,  of  it.  This  fact  is  already 
an  argument  in  its  favor.  It  is  an  acknowledgment,  is  religion,  of 
our  indebtedness  to  a  superior  Being,  to  whom  we  owe  life  and  all 
that  life  brings,  and  to  whom,  as  a  consequence,  we  owe  gratitude, 
honor,  and  obedience.  If  this  Supreme  Authority  has  declared  in 
any  way  His  will  to  us,  that  will  we  are  obliged  to  submit  to.  Re- 
ligion is  the  sum  total  of  our  duties  to  God.  To  call,  therefore,  into 
question  the  use  of  religion  is  a  misunderstanding  of  the  nature  of 
the  highest  Being  as  well  as  of  our  most  important  obligations. 
When  a  man  says, What  is  the  good  of  religion?  it  is  as  if  he  in  so 
many  words  said.  What  is  the  use  of  God?  What  use  is  there  in 
man's  fulfilling  his  most  essential  duties  in  life? 

so 


OF    WHAT    USE   IS   RELIGION?  21 

II.  The  importance  of  religion.  Put  plainly,  the  question  we  have 
undertaken  to  answer  sounds  blasphemous.  It  sounds  so  because 
it  is  so.  It  is  well  to  translate  the  utterances  of  unbelief  into  their 
every-day,  commonplace  language.  Religion  is  of  use  because  it  is 
important,  and  more  important,  than  anything  else  in  this  world. 
It  is  the  first  of  all  conceptions,  I  might  say.  It  is  fundamental.  It 
is  the  admission  that  God  has  created  and,  therefore,  owns  us,  and 
because  He  owns  us  He  has  inalienable  rights  with  regard  to  us.  The 
fact  remains  that  if  the  creature  comes  from  God,  and  subsists 
through  Him,  man  may  do  only  what  God  wills,  and  go  through  life 
along  the  path  appointed  by  Him,  and  tend  toward  the  end  God  had 
in  view  in  bringing  him  out  of  nothing. 

III.  A  few  questions.  Is  this  important?  Is  it  important  that 
man  should  at  every  moment  of  his  existence  acknowledge  his  de- 
pendence upon  God  ?  Is  indifference,  in  this  matter  rational  ?  Is  it 
safe?  Because  some  who  profess  religion  are  not  what  they  should 
be,  is  it  reasonable  to  blame  religion  for  it?  Are  they  not  wicked 
in  spite  of  religion?  Does  religion  teach  them  iniquity?  On  what 
does  the  materialist  base  his  view  ?  Is  he  sure  there  is  no  after  life  ? 
Quite  sure  ?  What  is  his  proof  ?  Where  is  his  authority  ?  Is  there 
no  use  in  an  institution  which  declares  man's  origin  ?  In  an  institu- 
tion which  enlightens  man  as  to  his  primal  duties  ?  In  an  institution 
which  makes  for  righteousness  here  and  security  hereafter? 


XL    ®ne  IRellglon  te  aa  (5oob  a^  Hnotber* 

Introduction. — The  error  implied  in  this  assertion  is  of  close  kin- 
ship to  the  falsehood  which  is  contained  in  the  blasphemous  question, 
"  What  is  the  use  of  religion  ?  "  They  both  are  tainted  with  the 
guilt  of  what  may  be  called  indifferentism.  There  may  be  said  to  be 
two  kinds  of  indifferentism.  One  is  general,  and  applies  to  all  re- 
ligion. It  might  take  this  form  of  expression :  It  is  a  matter  of  no 
concern  whether  one  professes  religion  or  not.  About  this  miscon- 
ception enough  has  been  said  already.  The  second  species  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  heading  of  this  sketch.  What  a  sweeping  declaration 
it  is !  What  arrogance  and  what  ignorance  it  displays.  It  displays 
arrogance  first. 

I.  The  presumption  of  the  opinion  is  readily  perceived  when  we 
consider  that  it  runs  counter  to  the  prevailing  practice  of  mankind, 
of  whom  the  majority  profess  some  form  of  belief  with  a  persistency 
and  a  loyalty  which  admits  of  no  other  form.  It  is  a  slur  on  the 
early  history  of  religion,  of  which  so  many  members  clung  so  stead- 
fastly to  one  rather  than  to  another  creed,  that  they  suffered  exile, 
persecution  and  torture,  and  death  rather  than  surrender  or  change 
in  the  least  their  faith.  It  is  pharisaical  inasmuch  as  the  indifferentist 
thanks  God,  if  he  ever  thanks  God,  or  if  he  has  the  crudest  notion  of 
the  Divinity,  that  he  is  not  like  other  men.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
characterize  the  indifferentist;  it  would  be  difficult  to  tabulate  his 
mental  conditions,  and  it  might  be  dangerous  to  diagnose  his  moral 
symptoms.  As  for  his  logic — and  individuals  of  the  indifferentist 
stamp  pride  themselves  on  the  inerrancy  of  their  rational  processes — 

22 


ONE  RELIGION  IS  AS  GOOD  AS  ANOTHER  23 

it  is  almost  ridiculous  enough  to  excite  inextinguishable  laughter. 
For  it  is  not  to  be  sanctioned  by  reason  that  it  matters  not  what 
religion  one  professes,  that  one  religion  is  as  good  as  another.  One 
religion  is  not  as  good  as  another : 

II.  (a)  There  are  religions,  and  their  dogmas  are  contrary  to 
truth  and  their  ethics  an  abomination.  They  propose  what  is  untrue 
for  belief  and  for  practice  what  is  wrong.  One  religion,  therefore, 
is  not  as  good  as  another,  because  there  are  some  religions  which 
are  bad.  (b)  In  the  variety  of  creeds  which  exist,  some  contradict 
each  other  totally,  and  all  contradict  each  other  in  part.  Is  it  logical 
to  admit  both  the  yea  and  nay  of  doctrine?  (c)  God  is  the  founder 
of  religion.  Is  He  equally  the  founder  of  contradiction  and  false- 
hood? Are  all  religions  equally  acceptable  to  Him?  (d)  Christ 
established  one  religion.  He  said  to  His  apostles,  teach  all  nations 
to  "  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you."  Did 
He  teach  His  disciples  all  the  errors,  all  the  heresies,  all  the  schisms 
with  which  the  religions  of  the  world  have  been  inundated?  Did 
He  estabHsh  one  or  many  religions?  If  many,  well  might  we  ex- 
claim. What  was  the  use  of  His  preaching?  What  has  He  brought 
to  mankind  ?  Heresy,  schism,  error  did  not  need  a  divine  propagator. 
These  things  are  human  creations.  Truth  is  one;  God  is  one; 
Christ  is  one ;  religion  is  one.  Is  the  God  of  indifferentism  an  ador- 
able God  ?  Is  He  the  most  perfect  being  ?  Is  He  substantial  sanctity 
and  substantial  truth  if  one  religion  is  as  good  as  another  ?  Arrogant, 
ignorant,  criminal,  and  blasphemous  is  the  affirmation  of  the  indiifer- 
entist. 


XII.    Zbcve  IB  no  6o^ 

Introduction, — The  expressing,  the  writing  down  of  the  above 
affirmation  shocks  universally.  It  is  an  assertion  which  points  to  a 
revolting  order  of  intelligence  and  conduct.  Not  in  all  the  languages 
of  the  world,  not  in  all  utterances  of  mankind  is  there  an  averment 
so  horrible,  so  blasphemous,  so  ignominious.  It  reveals  mental  and 
moral  degeneracy  of  the  lowest  type.  So  abominable  is  it  that  with 
exceptions  which  may  easily  be  counted  there  is  not  a  philosopher 
who  refuses  to  affirm  that  any  one  professing  atheism  is  insincere  or 
brutalized.  This  is  true  of  thinkers  before  and  since  Christ.  Says 
Cicero :  "  The  existence  of  God  is  so  manifest  that  I  can  hardly  be- 
lieve in  the  sanity  of  the  one  who  denies  it "  (De  Nat.  Deorum.  II., 
44).  "  Nobody,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "denies  God  save  one  whose 
interest  it  is  that  there  be  no  God."  We  may  safely  admit  that  God 
is.  Atheists  there  are,  but  not  atheists  of  the  mind,  but  of  the  heart 
and  the  passions.  It  is  false  that  there  is  no  God,  for  it  is  true  that 
God  is. 

I.  It  is  false  that  there  is  no  God.  One  grows  weary  of  defend- 
ing the  glorious  truths  of  Christianity  against  enemies  who  advance 
no  new  difficulties,  but  persistently  repeat  those  which  have  been 
urged  since  the  beginning.  Let  us  just  as  defiantly  deny  the  atheistic 
proposition  as  they  boldly  put  it  forth.  Let  us  ask  them  to  prove  that 
there  is  no  God.  Have  they  ever  proved  it  ?  Have  they  ever,  with 
all  their  ingenuity,  framed  an  argument  of  which  the  propositions 
are  undeniable,  and  from  which  is  logically  deducible  the  conclusion : 
God  does  not  exist?    All  they  have  alleged  amounts  merely  to  a 

34 


THERE   IS   NO    GOD.  25 

slender,  perhaps  hanging  on  the  gossamer  thread  of  an  unrea- 
sonable doubt.  Have  they  ever  propagated  their  irreligion?  that  is, 
propagated  so  as  to  plant  in  minds  a  conviction  immovable,  or  to 
touch  hearts  with  a  persuasion  which  remains  in  spite  of  threats, 
persecution,  and  death  ?  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  we  are  treating 
of  what  is  termed  theoretical  atheism.  Until  more  forcible  proofs 
than  mere  assertion  are  forthcoming,  the  belief  in  God's  existence 
will  be  an  undisputed  possession  in  the  thoughts  of  men.  This  is 
only  a  negative  reply,  but  positive  answers  are  not  wanting. 

II.  While  it  is  false  that  God  does  not  exist,  it  must  be  true  that  the 
existence  of  the  Supreme  Being  can  not  he  questioned.  It  must  not 
be  forgotten  in  all  these  sketches  we  prescind  from  faith.  Faith 
makes  every  thing  clear.  Here  and  now  we  are  appealing  to  com- 
mon sense.  It  is  obvious  to  the  most  uncultured  mind  just  on  the 
confines  of  sanity  that  God  is  a  word  we  have  used  and  heard  since 
our  childhood.  Not  only  we  have  heard  and  used  it,  but,  moreover, 
we  understood  its  meaning.  Perhaps  we  grasped  its  meaning  more 
readily  than  the  signification  of  anything  else  proposed  to  us.  What 
does  this  fact  prove?  It  proves  that  the  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being 
is  natural  to  the  human  soul,  that  this  voice  of  nature  is  sincere  and 
unalterable.  Says  Cicero :  "  An  opinion  which  has  in  its  favor  the 
positive  testimony  of  the  human  race  can  not  but  be  true  "  (De  Nat. 
Deor.,  I,  17).  And  Aristotle  declared  that,  "What  all  men  hold 
instinctively  as  true,  is  a  truth  of  nature."  This  belief  grows  with 
our  development.  If  it  weakens  during  the  storm  of  passions,  it 
breaks  out  like  a  blaze  at  the  hour  of  death.  Like  a  rainbow,  it 
reaches  from  our  cradle  to  our  grave,  and  life  would  be  dark  without 
it.  This  is  a  fact.  Have  atheists  such  a  fact  in  their  repertoire  of 
sophistries  ? 


XIII.    Zhcvc  i0  no  (5o^ 

Introduction. — Once  more  let  us  stigmatize  this  declaration  as  the 
most  shameless,  the  most  profligate  ever  made.  To  utter  it  there  is 
required  an  effrontery  and  a  corruption  which  can  proceed  only 
from  a  mind  given  over  to  pride  or  from  a  heart  abandoned  to  every 
wicked  desire,  and  perhaps  to  the  most  grasping  greed  and  the  most 
abominable  lusts.  The  voice  that  speaks  it  is  the  voice  of  one  dead 
to  the  strongest  instincts  of  nature,  the  voice  of  one  who  sets  him- 
self in  opposition  to  his  whole  environment.  Every  tongue — the 
tongue  of  man,  all  the  tongues  of  earth,  sea,  and  sky — proclaim  the 
glory  of  God.  The  tongue  of  the  atheist  alone  emits  the  only  dis- 
cordant note  in  this  grand  chorus  of  creatures  hymning  the  praises 
of  the  omnipotent  Creator  of  the  Universe.  "  Whither  shall  I  go 
from  thy  spirit  ?  or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  face  ?  If  I  take  my 
wings  early  in  the  morning  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
sea,  even  there  also  shall  thy  hand  lead  me  and  thy  right  hand  shall 
hold  me  "  (Ps.  138).  What  sphere,  or  what  land,  or  what  depth,  or 
what  height  shall  the  atheist  and  the  scoffer  inhabit  to  be  screened 
from  the  face  of  God?  Repellently  and  indignantly  we  deny  the 
colossal  falsehood,  and  confess  that  God  exists,  because, 

I.  Mankind  has  been  in  possession  of  this  truth  from  the  begin- 
ning. Collect  the  votes  of  mankind,  and  the  verdict  will  be  an  over- 
whelming majority  in  favor  of  God's  existence — a  majority  so  over- 
whelming from  the  beginning  until  this  third  year  of  the  twentieth 
century  of  the  modern  era  that  the  opponents  will  be  nowhere  dis- 
coverable.   East,  west,  north,  and  south — wherever  a  human  being 

26 


THERE   IS  NO    GOD,  27 

breathes  or  has  breathed,  savage  or  civilized  be  he,  every  eye  looks 
Godward.  Every  heart  has  throbbed  with  a  sentiment  of  the  In- 
finite. No  matter  how  impoverished  a  language  may  be,  it  has 
always  the  word  God.  Cicero  sums  up  the  experience  of  all  history 
anterior  to  his  own  day,  and  predicted  infallibly  the  whole  future 
until  the  end  of  time  in  this  regard  when  he  says :  "  There  exists  no 
people  however  barbarous  which  has  not  had  the  thought  of  God  " 
(De  leg.  I,  24).  How  many  countries  have  been  explored  since  his 
age,  and  the  word  of  the  Roman  philosopher  remains  unshaken. 
This  is  a  fact  universal  and  incontestable.  It  is  an  assured  sign  of 
truth.  Hence  the  religious  sentiment  always  alive  is  founded  on  rea- 
son and  verity.  Before  advancing  any  other  proof,  let  us  examine, 
II.  An  Objection.  But  priests  or  legislators  may  have  invented 
religion,  and  thus  have  inaugurated  the  idea  of  God.  We  ask,  are 
heart-sentiments  invented?  Are  instincts  promulgated  by  law  or 
exhortation?  Were  priests  before  religion?  Can  the  existence  of 
the  priesthood  be  explained  otherwise  than  by  the  preexistence  of 
the  religious  sentiment?  Does  not  the  fact  that  from  the  very  be- 
ginning legislators  like  Minos,  Solon,  Lycurgus,  Numa  admitted 
that  religion  is  necessary  as  a  foundation  for  social  stability  ?  Does 
not  this  fact  prove  that  the  religious  sentiment  was  deeply,  power- 
fully, and  universally  alive  in  souls  ?  Moreover,  where  does  history 
narrate  the  invention  of  the  religious  idea?  Again,  let  us  demand 
from  unbelievers  whether  all  history  does  not  mark  them  as  isolated 
monsters  in  the  domain  of  events.  The  pity  of  it!  They  have 
wickedly  departed  from  their  God. 


XlY. —Zbcvc  He  IRo  (Bob* 

Introduction. — This  denial  of  a  universally  and  admitted  fact  can 
not  be  scarified  too  deeply.  It  is  ever  received  by  the  generality  of 
mankind  with  instinctive  and  immediate  repudiation.  It  is  an  insult 
to  intelligence ;  it  is  an  insolent  disclaimer  of  the  best  and  highest 
thoughts  and  aspirations  of  all  the  ages  since  chaos  first  obeyed  the 
divine  summons :  "  Let  there  be  light.'*  It  was  first  uttered,  not  in 
conviction,  but  in  hatred  and  pride  by  the  dragon  with  whom  the 
archangel  contended  while  silence  held  the  hosts  of  God.  It  is  a  cry 
of  rebellion — it  is  an  echo  of  hell.  It  is  impossible  to  fathom  the 
degradation  of  the  heart  whence  such  an  apostasy  will  rush  to  the 
lips.  Scripture  has  put  an  indelible  mark  of  infamy  on  this  treacher- 
ous denial  in  the  fifty-second  Psalm :  "  The  fool  said  in  his  heart : 
There  is  no  God."  Notice  his  heart,  not  his  mind,  spoke,  and  his 
lieart  was  the  heart  of  a  fool  made  foolish  by  corruption  and  selfish- 
ness. It  is  well  in  this  all  important  question  to  profess  our  faith 
in  God's  existence  vigorously  and  fearlessly.  Let  us  see  what  more 
is  advanced  against  the  Christian,  yes,  and  pagan  and  universal 
doctrine — the  doctrine  of  all  times  and  all  peoples. 

I.  An  objection.  Our  adversaries  say  that  this  idea  sprang  from 
the  fear  which  shook  men  in  presence  of  the  great  phenomena  of 
nature.  We  can  not  think  this.  Man's  fear  of  God  is  not  a  mere 
physical  fear;  it  is  not  the  fear  of  the  brute;  but  it  is  a  fear,  or 
rather,  an  awe,  mingled  with  respect.  Besides,  men  do  not  only 
fear  God,  they  love  Him.  Can  this  sentiment  of  love  spring  from 
dread?     Moreover,  these  phenomena  are  merely  material.     They 

28 


THERE   IS   NO    GOD.  29 

beget  only  an  impression  of  themselves.  For  example:  Thunder 
might  make  men  dread  thunder — but  why  dread  God  ?  What  would 
make  men  rise  from  them — from  a  dread  of  them — to  a  fear  of  God  ? 
Evidently  man's  intellect  perceives  some  necessary  relation  between 
these  elements  in  wild  confusion  and  the  author  of  these  elements. 
The  pagans  converted  these  elements  into  gods  and  goddesses.  The 
Jews,  and  the  Christians,  and  unnumbered  minds  of  antiquity  soared 
beyond  these  entities  to  the  infinite  Being.  Always,  however,  is 
noticeable  the  instinctive  idea  of  God. 

11.  That  idea  of  God,  moreover,  is  rooted  deeply  in  the  human  soul, 
is  universal,  and  thus  can  not  be  the  offspring  of  fortuitous,  exterior, 
and  isolated  causes.  The  cause  is  the  nature  of  man  created  by  God 
and  for  God.  These  empirical  reasons  for  the  existence  of  the  con- 
ception of  God — these  assertions  which  endeavor  to  establish  as  a 
cause  of  it  fear  or  priesthood  or  legislation  are  unphilosophical  and 
baseless.  One  might  ask  why  would  priests  or  rulers  make  use  of 
religion  in  order  to  keep  nations  in  awe  if  they  were  not  aware  that 
every  mind  and  every  heart  would  receive  an  idea  which  their  nature 
in  its  first  impulses  had  already  inspired.  What  is  the  faith  of  our 
entire  humanity  ?  It  believes  in  God.  How  did  this  belief  come  into 
the  world?  Did  any  preexisting  law  impose  it?  Did  it  result  from 
a  whim — a  caprice  ?  No !  this  belief,  so  common,  so  persistent,  so  in- 
destructible, is  a  tendency  which  antedates  reflection,  which  is  irre- 
sistible, which  is  involuntary,  and  which  has  been  planted  in  the 
soul  by  the  author  of  nature.  Is  it  within  the  power  of  the  atheist 
to  give  as  good  an  accounting  as  this  of  his  unbelief? 


XV.— TOere  Us  mo  <5oJ>. 

Introduction. — It  would  seem  that  the  further  we  enter  upon  the 
analysis  of  this  assertion,  the  more  it  becomes  apparent  that  it  is  an 
affirmation  not  only  flagitious  in  its  nature,  but  helpless  and  hopeless 
in  its  logic.  No  Catholic  need  mistrust  his  faith.  He  may  fall  in 
with  men  whose  sophistries  will  bewilder,  but  let  him  rest  assured 
that  he  himself  is  standing  upon  the  security  of  truth,  while  his 
opponents  are  building  upon  the  shifting  sand  of  falsehood.  He 
may  not  be  able  to  pierce  the  armor  of  his  assailant,  but  abiding 
with  him  always  must  be  the  conviction  that  his  position  is  safe. 
Truth  is  not  afraid  of  the  light,  nor  of  investigation.  On  the  con- 
trary, error  stands  in  dread  of  publicity.  The  longer  truth  is  propa- 
gated the  more  brilliantly  it  shines.  Whereas  the  wider  the  expansion 
of  error,  the  more  visible  do  its  vagaries  and  contradictions  become. 
Against  the  fundamental  truth  of  God's  existence  objections  are 
constantly  being  urged.    It  does  no  harm  to  meet  them. 

I.  Objection. — God  and  the  other  life  are  fables,  myths.  Belief 
in  the  existence  of  God  is  the  one  belief  that  has  taken  the  most 
universal  possession  of  all  ages  and  peoples.  Is  it  so  with  fables 
and  myths?  Where  are  the  old  mythologies?  How  widely  they 
were  spread !  How  eloquently  they  were  preached  by  the  persuasive 
elegance  of  poets  and  orators!  The  sword  was  drawn  for  them, 
and  the  highest  literature  marched  with  them  to  conquest.  What 
is  the  attitude  of  the  human  mind  toward  them  to-day?  They  are 
laughed  to  scorn  by  all  civilization.  Is  it  so  with  the  idea  of  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Being  ?  These  myths  and  these  fables  are  only 

30 


THERE   IS   NO    GOD,  31 

isolated  phenomena — parasites  and  unwholesome  fungi  of  diseased 
and  decaying  intelligences.  Moreover,  let  it  be  said  right  here  that 
these  simulacra  of  religion  make  strongly  for  one  great  truth,  or 
rather  for  one  splendid  fact.  They  all  of  them  admitted  the  existence 
of  gods,  admitted  the  existence  of  a  supreme  God,  "  call  him  Jove, 
Jehova,  Lord."  Nay,  further,  hanging  above  even  Jupiter  was  that 
still  higher  being  they  called  Necessity,  Fate.  There  never  was  a 
religion  professing  atheism. 

11.  They  object — our  enemies  do — that  this  universality  of  time 
and  space  which  we  claim  for  the  Christian  tenet  suffers  many  and 
notable  exceptions.  There  were  in  parts  of  the  world,  they  say, 
sovereigns  and  peoples  who  never  felt  the  need  of  a  God,  who  never 
had  a  notion  of  religion.  Were  even  this  true,  it  would  detract  in 
nothing  from  our  argument.  It  would  prove  only  that  there  are 
certain  families  of  the  human  race  phenomenal  in  this  regard ;  whose 
condition  is  below  the  normal,  who,  in  fact,  mentally  and  morally 
have  reached  an  exceptional  and  unparalleled  degradation,  who  have 
Ibst  everything  human  save  the  outward  semblance.  But,  fortunately, 
it  is  not  true.  More  thorough  investigation  has  revealed  that  these 
peoples  have  in  the  main  been  calumniated  or  misunderstood.  Our 
foes  are  hard  pushed  when  they  are  driven  to  oppose  against  the 
large  civilized  world  a  handful  of  unknown,  unintelligible  and 
mumbling  savages.  Evidently  they  prefer  to  herd  with  lower 
natures  and  be  one  with  them  in  feeling  and  thought,  as  they  run  the 
risk  of  being  one  with  them  in  perversity  and  degradation  of 
character. 


XVL— trbere  Us  IRo  (Bob. 

Introduction. — There  is  no  language  too  scathing  wherewith  to 
rebuke  the  man  who  asserts  that  God  does  not  exist.  His  position 
should  entitle  him  to  no  respect.  He  is  an  eyesore  in  creation.  His 
presence  defiles  humanity.  He  jars  upon  the  tenderest  chords  of 
the  human  heart.  He  insults  the  human  family,  of  which  he  is  a 
worthless  and  pestilential  member.  He  is  an  outcast.  He  has  no 
community  of  thought  with  the  race.  He  is  a  murderer  and  a  liar. 
Intellectually  and  morally  he  is  a  leper,  and  undeserving  of  anything 
save  loathing.  His  doctrine  places  him  beyond  the  pale  of  com- 
miseration. He  is  to  be  left  a  prey  to  the  gloom  of  his  own  thoughts, 
and  were  we  not  influenced  by  Christian  charity,  his  condition  in  time 
and  eternity  would  put  him  beyond  the  reach  of  our  prayers  in  his 
behalf  to  the  throne  of  pity,  whereon  sits  in  undiminished  infmite 
mercy  the  great  God  whom  he  so  unreasonably  repudiates.  He  may 
doubt,  he  may  find  insufficient  the  proofs  furnished  by  common  sense 
and  sound  reason  in  favor  of  God's  existence,  but  he  ought  to  know 
that  no  atheist  has  as  yet  demonstrably  proved  the  contrary  thesis. 

There  are  other  proofs  of  the  Christian  belief.  I.  "  Nevertheless 
He  left  not  himself  without  testimony"  (Acts.  xiv.  i6).  Every- 
where we  find  the  testimony  of  the  existence  of  God — in  the  arch- 
ing heavens,  in  the  restless  sea,  in  the  fertile  earth,  in  our  heart  beats, 
in  the  very  dust  of  the  road  (Rom.  i.  19).  The  visible  world  exists, 
therefore  God  exists.  Whence  come  creatures?  From  themselves? 
When  and  how?  Have  we  been  from  all  eternity?  If  we  made 
ourselves,  should  we  not  have  it  in  our  power  to  limit  or  expand  our 

32 


THERE   IS   NO    GOD.  33 

being?  Who  could  impede  us?  Would  we  not  exist  by  the  very 
force  of  our  nature?  Abstruse  yet  simple  questions.  If  man  did 
not  bring  himself  into  existence,  is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
irrational  things  or  inanimate  objects  made  themselves? 

II.  Not  only  the  world  exists,  but  there  is  life,  activity  in  creation. 
This  is  but  a  repetition  of  the  preceding  argument.  If  there  can  be 
no  existence  without  some  self-existing,  unproduced  first  being, 
neither  can  there  be  life  or  activity.  It  is  worth  while  meditating 
upon  this.    It  grows  clearer  on  reflection. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  order  which  regulates  creation  and 
which  offers  such  superb  testimony  to  the  actuality  of  a  being  who 
made  all  these  things  that  have  their  movement,  number,  measure, 
and  weight.  There  have  been  not  many,  but  some,  objections  ad- 
vanced against  this  process  of  ours.  They  say  that  all  beings  are 
parts  of  one  chain,  one  depending  on  the  other  for  existence.  We 
may  go  from  link  to  link  forever,  and  need  no  first  being  as  an  ex- 
planation. This,  of  course,  may  be  gratuitously  denied.  It  is  non- 
suited. It  is  thrown  out  of  court.  It  is  not  proven.  Were  it  proven 
that  such  was  the  condition  of  things,  it  would  yet  be  required  to 
substantiate  that  this  chain — a  line  or  a  circle  be  it — came  into  ex- 
istence of  itself.  Fancy,  imagination,  may  admit  this,  but  not  intel- 
ligence. By  a  reference  to  the  palpable  argument  of  cause  and  effect 
we  will  always  discover  wherewith  to  satisfy  us — that  not  only  this 
vast  universe,  but  not  even  a  mote  in  the  sunbeam  can  produce  an 
adequate  explanation  of  the  why  and  wherefore  of  its  being,  except 
by  conceding  that  God  is,  and  in  Him  all  things  live  and  move  and 
are.  The  contradictory  hypothesis  is  as  unintelligible  as  the  develop- 
ment of  an  atheist. 


XVIL— tTbcre  Us  no  (Bob. 

Introduction. — Again  this  blasphemous  assertion  calls  for  our  at- 
tention. It  is  a  pity  and  a  calamity  that  this  phrase  has  ever  burdened 
human  language.  It  is  a  disastrous  declaration,  for  so  many  will  be 
tempted  to  make  use  of  it  as  an  opiate  to  dull  any  recriminations  of 
a  guilty  conscience.  It  has  never  been  dictated  by  natural  instinct 
or  by  reason.  The  atheists,  whom  history  portrays  to  us  as  publicly 
manifesting  their  unbelief,  have  been  proclaimed  as  men  of  high 
uprightness  of  life.  This  testimony  is  by  no  means  unimpeachable. 
We  know  nothing  of  their  inner  life,  of  their  thoughts,  their  aspira- 
tions, their  desires.  They  were  not,  as  far  as  is  known,  convicted 
of  adultery  or  dishonesty.  But  they  were  guilty  of  insolence  toward 
their  fellow  men,  which  betokens  a  selfish  and  unsavory  pride.  They 
were  criminal  in  the  highest  degree,  of  treason  not  only  to  God,  but 
to  individual  man,  to  the  family  and  to  the  state,  because  they  en- 
deavored to  remove  the  primal  and  most  effective  check  to  all 
wickedness.  If  a  man  is  led  to  think  there  is  no  God,  no  judge,  no 
eternity,  no  heaven,  no  hell,  what  is  going  to  restrain  him  when 
passions  or  opportunity  urge  ?  What  is  going  to  cripple  his  arm  when 
stretched  out  in  greed  or  lust  against  his  fellow  man,  society,  his 
country?  We  imprison  our  anarchists  for  their  rebellious  speech, 
but  what,  is  the  doctrine  of  anarchy  compared  with  the  propagation 
of  atheism  ?    These  men  are  ignorant,  for  God  does  exist. 

I.  It  is  an  admitted  principle  that  what  is  implanted  in  every 
human  breast,  what  is  in  the  heart  of  man,  in  all  places  and  all  ages, 
a  constant  desire,  a  desire  irresistible,  points  to  an  incontrovertible 

34 


THERE   IS   NO    GOD.  35 

truth.  Every  man  is  impelled  by  the  desire  of  happiness.  This 
desire  never  sleeps.  It  is  innate  in  the  most  savage  breast.  Nor  is 
this  happiness  any  kind  of  happiness.  The  human  yearning  is  for 
boundless,  for  perfect  happiness.  Who  has  fixed  this  hunger  ?  Who 
has  lodged  it  in  universal  rational  nature?  Clearly  the  author  of 
that  nature.  It  is  an  effect,  and  must  have  a  cause.  Man  can  not 
be  its  originator.  It  seems,  therefore,  to  point  eloquently  to  some  being 
who  planted  it,  some  superior  being.  That  being  is  responsible. 
Superior  in  every  way  to  man,  he  must  have  in  his  possession  some- 
where an  efficient  cause  of  that  bliss  man  so  pantingly  thirsts  for. 
There  can  be  no  perfect  bliss  except  it  be  limitless.  Supposing  a 
limit,  there  would  be  a  desire  for  a  possible  beyond,  and,  therefore, 
beatification  would  be  incomplete.  There  is  needed,  therefore,  an 
infinite  being.    An  infinite  being  would  be  God. 

II.  This  argument,  from  universal  desire,  might  be  supplemented 
by  a  consideration  of  Conscience.  In  the  voice  of  Conscience  we 
notice  two  facts:  Conscience  forbids  and  Conscience  threatens.  It 
forbids  the  performance  of  such  or  such  an  action.  In  that  prohibi- 
tion there  is  transparent  the  existence  of  a  law.  Not  only  does 
Conscience  proclaim  the  law,  but  simultaneously  there  is  heard  that 
the  offense  will  meet  with  retribution.  The  law  manifested  by  con- 
science and  the  guilty  knowledge  that  we  have  of  our  wrong  doing 
are  accompanied  by  the  fear  of  the  sanction  of  the  law  emanating 
from  a  legislator.  Who  is  this  legislator,  this  legislator  that  lords 
it  so  imperatively  over  every  man  coming  into  the  world  ?  Can  this 
Lawgiver,  so  unmistakably  forcing  by  the  process  of  conscience  His 
power  and  authority  over  entire  humanity  since  the  beginning,  can 
this  Lawgiver  be  anything  or  any  one  save  the  Creator  of  heaven 
and  earth — God  ? 


XVIIL— ^bere  Is  flo  (Bob. 

Introduction. — That  the  atheist  is  to  be  relegated  to  the  last 
ranks  of  the  race,  if,  indeed,  he  does  not  lose  his  family  rights  and 
descends  to  the  level  of  the  brute,  will  be  conceded  by  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  his  fellows.  Morally,  his  condition  is,  even 
with  the  best  construction  we  put  upon  it,  unenviable,  and  if  he 
claims  to  be  irrefutably  convinced  of  his  opinion,  he  is  unreasonable 
beyond  expression.  Morally,  he  is  guilty  of  apostasy  of  the  deepest 
dye;  mentally,  he  is  guilty  of  a  disloyalty  to  truth  which  is  inex- 
cusable. It  is  granted  that  there  are  no  theoretic  atheists.  Yet 
there  may  be  men  like  those  who  lie  in  the  beginning  consciously 
and  by  repetition  of  their  falsehood  grow  to  look  upon  their  lie 
as  truth;  there  may  be  those  who  through  bravado  or  blasphemy 
or  despair  began  by  speaking  atheism,  and  have  come  in  the  end 
to  believe  in  their  vile  and  unpardonable  assertion.  Can  we 
imagine  a  more  terrible  chastisement  than  that  which  God  inflicts 
by  withdrawing  Himself  from  the  mind  as  well  as  from  the  heart 
of  man?  Romans,  chapter  one,  would  seem  to  hint  at  precisely 
such  a  penalty.  Man  extrudes  God  from  his  mind,  and  God  de- 
parts. Inconceivable  plight!  Darkness  here,  and  hereafter,  what? 
No  God  in  time,  no  God  in  eternity !  We  have  considered  some 
of  the  protests  made  against  the  first  truth  of  reason  and  the  first 
truth  of  faith.  Some  more  may  be  pointed  out  and  briefly  ex- 
amined. 

I.  Objections.  Granting  that  order  which  is  so  remarkably  dis- 
played in  creation,  it  is  only  proven  thereby  that  the  world  has  had 
an  Architect,  not  a  Master,  but  one  who  simply  shaped  and  fash- 

36 


THERE   IS   NO    GOD.  37 

ioned  pre-existing  material.  If  so,  at  any  rate,  we  must  admit  the 
superiority  of  the  builder  to  the  building.  Furthermore,  what  is 
meant  by  the  Cosmic  order?  It  does  not  imply  merely  the  external 
appearances,  accidental  shapes.  It  goes  to  the  very  essence — it  con- 
trols the  entirety  of  the  being,  its  forces,  and  its  innumerable  re- 
lations. This  can  be  seen  in  a  grain  of  sand,  in  a  drop  of  water, 
in  a  blade  of  grass  just  as  clearly  as  in  the  boundless  ocean  or 
illimitable  forests,  or  solar  systems  and  planets  and  stellar  orbs 
coursing  without  conflict  in  appointed  paths  and  through  the  vast 
territories  of  space.  Whence  it  may  be  concluded  that  the  struc- 
ture of  the  universe  imports  that,  as  forces  flow  from  essences  the 
architect  could  not  rear  this  magnificent  temple  without  com- 
manding essences  as  well  as  forces,  and  thus  must  be  hailed  not 
only  as  the  Builder  by  excellence,  but  the  Creator  as  well — com- 
manding the  totality  of  every  individual  thing  that  exists.  He  is 
not  only  the  Constructing  Agent,  but  the  Designer  and  the  Creator. 
II.  A  second  objection  has  been  raised.  Creation,  it  is  said, 
is  the  producing  of  something  out  of  nothing.  But  out  of  nothing, 
nothing  can  be  made,  therefore,  creation  is  inadmissible.  This 
without  any  hesitation  may  be  pronounced  puerile.  It  is  an  old 
protest,  as  old  as  the  Epicureans.  Nothing,  of  course,  can  not 
be  the  material  cause  of  any  existence.  Though  there  was  a  period 
when  all  created  things  were  nothing,  there  never  was  a  period 
when  God  was  not.  God  did  not  create  out  of  nothing  as  a  some* 
thing  from  which  He  produced  things.  He  said,  "  Let  creation  be," 
and  creation  was.  He  waved  the  sceptre  of  His  omnipotence  over 
the  empty  void,  and  lo !  the  abyss  teemed  with  beings.  When 
driven  in  one  way  the  atheists  clamor,  "  There  is  no  cause,  but 
only  succession ;"  when  driven  in  another,  they  cry,  "  No  succes- 
sion, but  only  cause." 


XIX.— ^bcre  lis  mo  (Bob. 

Introduction. — The  attack  upon  the  great  truth  of  the  existence 
of  God  has  been  virulent  and  constant.  It  has  been  perpetrated 
by  men  of  erudition  and  influence  at  times.  They  have  been  fol- 
lowed by  a  mob  of  shallow  individuals  who  have  endeavored  to 
spread  broadcast  their  pernicious  doctrine.  How  have  they  suc- 
ceeded in  their  attempt?  What  impression  have  they  made  on 
humanity?  The  belief  in  God  is  an  instinct  of  our  nature.  It  is 
inborn.  Hence  with  every  individual  and  every  generation  the 
blasphemous  warfare  has  to  be  begun  all  over  again.  Man  remains 
the  same.  Trumpet  a  call  to  the  race  to  rally  around  the  standard 
of  Atheism  and  how  many  will  answer?  Of  those  who  do  answer, 
how  many  have  convictions  of  any  kind?  How  many  wear  the 
livery  of  spotless  lives?  How  many  persevere  in  their  Apostasy? 
How  many  die  with  the  cry,  "  God  is  not "  upon  their  lips  ?  There 
is  a  dogma  of  our  faith  which  proclaims  that  God  is,  that  He  is 
the  Creator  of  the  universe,  that  His  existence  is  not  only  demon- 
strated by  faith,  but  is,  moreover,  demonstrable  by  reason  alone. 
We  are  obliged  to  believe  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  human  reason 
to  prove  that  God  exists.  This  is  a  consoling  doctrine.  It  does 
not  mean  that  you  or  I  can  prove  by  reason  the  existence  of  God, 
but  that  the  proof  thereof  falls  within  the  domain  of  human  in- 
telligence. The  arguments  already  proposed  would  seem  to  prove 
that  God  is.    Others  may  be  added. 

I.  It  may  be  concluded  from  the  many  ideas  or  principles 
which  prevail  throughout  humanity.  There  are  the  indisputable 
principles  which  control  every  other  principle,  and  without  which 

38 


THERE   IS   NO    GOD.  39 

knowledge  or  certainty  would  be  an  impossibility.  They  are  called 
intuitive,  necessary,  fundamental  principles.  Whence  do  they  get 
their  imperative  necessity?  Whence  derive  they  that  something 
which  can  not  be  gainsaid,  which  must  be  admitted  by  all  minds? 
I  might  ask,  Whence  do  they  deduce  the  characteristics  of  eternity 
and  irrefutability?  For  they  are  true,  and  they  are  true  ever. 
From  the  unchangeable  nature  and  essences  of  things.  Whence 
do  these  essential  properties  of  all  things  derive  their  immutability? 
Evidently  from  some  immutable  intelligence  which  is  boundless 
and  substantial  truth,  which,  in  other  words,  is  God,  whose  nature 
is  the  prototype  of  all  that  is  permanent  and  unvarying  in  the  uni- 
verse. 

II.  Let  us  ask  whence  comes  the  undisputable  difference  be- 
tween good  and  evil?  justice  and  injustice?  the  fundamental  laws 
of  morality?  conscience?  Do  they  depend  upon  the  will  of  man, 
upon  his  good  pleasure,  upon  his  caprice?  The  impossibility  of 
this  is  patent.  What  man  makes  is  of  short  duration.  Conscience 
is  everywhere  and  alwa3-s.  It  is  in  man,  born  with  him,  not 
originated  by  him — in  him  in  spite  of  his  will  and  in  spite  of  all 
his  efforts  to  destroy  it.  Conscience  tells  of  a  law,  a  law  connotes 
a  superior.  Man  is  not  his  own  superior.  Who  is  this  irrepressible 
legislator,  and  what  is  this  enduring  law  ?  Follow  the  same  reason- 
ing for  the  ideas  of  justice  and  good  and  wrong  and  inljustice. 
Listen  to  Cicero  (Deleg.  ii.  4)  :  "  The  real  and  only  reason  of  this 
law  of  conscience  which  forbids  and  commands  is  to  be  found  in 
the  incorruptible  mind  of  the  Supreme  Being.  God's  existence  may 
explain  much  in  the  world.  Atheism  can  explain  nothing  in  any 
order,  whether  the  material,  the  intellectual,  or  the  moral.  Let  us 
hope,  for  the  sake  of  these  defamers,  that  for  them  God's  mercy 
will  be  above  all  His  works." 


XX.— (Bob  Can  «ot  »e  Iknowm 

Introduction. — The  last  refuge  of  those  who  deny  the  existence 
of  a  Supreme  Being  is  the  proposition  that  it  is  impossible  for  man 
to  know  anything  about  God.  So  strong  is  the  evidence  in  favor 
of  this  first  great  truth  that,  unwilling  to  shoulder  the  responsibility 
of  an  absolute  rejection,  they  assert  that  human  reason  is  impotent 
to  discover  anything  about  the  Deity.  They  imply  that  there  may 
be  a  God.  The  atheist  says  God  is  not  because  there  is  nothing 
in  existence  beyond  matter  and  blind  force.  What  this  affirma- 
tion of  theirs  amounts  to  may  readily  be  gathered.  We  call  (or 
rather,  he  calls  himself)  the  one  who  refuses  to  grant  the  existence 
of  an  infinite  Creator,  an  Agnostic.  The  term  explains  itself.  He 
builds  up  his  belief  on  baseless  assertions,  he  strengthens  it  by 
abstruse  metaphysical  discussions  on  being,  the  "  infinite,"  re- 
lations, causes,  eflfects,  succession,  or  interdependence,  unlimited, 
of  things  on  each  other.  Their  watchword  is  that  nothing  can  be 
known  save  by  experience.  Here  are  some  reasons  alleged  for 
their  doctrine  by  some  in  the  forefront  of  their  ranks.  I  am  an 
Agnostic,  say  they, 

I.  Because  "  you  Gnostics  or  Christians  do  not  prove  your 
assertions."  This  can  be  put  down  as  a  declaration  more  easily 
made  than  demonstrated.  We  do  not  know  God  and  His  per- 
fections with  any  but  a  small  measure  of  adequacy  because  God 
is  infinite,  and,  therefore,  no  finite  mind  can  comprehend  Him 
or  His  attributes.     Is  there  any  finite  thing,  any  chemical  sub- 

40 


GOD    CAN   NOT  BE   KNOWN.  41 

stance,  say,  any  planet,  any  fixed  star,  any  stellar  system,  any 
natural  force  which  man  has  in  centuries  of  scientific  investigation 
and  with  constantly  improving  appliances  ever  thoroughly  ex- 
hausted the  knowledge  of?  How,  then,  can  God  be  possessed  com- 
pletely by  any  mental  effort?  But  it  is  in  our  power  to  prove 
that  He  exists ;  it  is  in  our  power  to  predicate  certain  perfection  of 
Him.  We  argue  from  effect  to  a  first  cause,  and  from  the  fact 
that  that  cause  is  first  and  necessary  being,  we  deduce  its  won- 
derful perfections. 

n.  They  are  Agnostics,  they  say,  *'  Because  we  do  not 
agree  among  ourselves."  That  there  is  disagreement  among  the 
sects  is  very  evident.  There  are  as  many  doctrines  as  there  are 
sects.  There  is  no  unanimity  among  them  save  when  they  combine 
to  attack  the  Church  of  Christ.  However,  regarding  the  funda- 
mental truth  of  which  we  are  speaking,  regarding  God's  existence, 
they  do  not  differ.  All  (Catholics,  heretics,  schismatics,  pagans) 
proclaim  their  adherence  to  the  primal  doctrine  of  all  religion.  All 
religionists,  of  whatever  stamp,  profess  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
that  He  is  the  beginning  and  end  of  all  things,  that  He  is  the 
Creator  and  the  Ruler  of  the  universe. 

in.  The  Agnostic  furthermore  protests  that  "  even  if  zve  proved 
our  doctrine,  even  if  we  agreed  on  all  points  of  doctrine,  those 
tenets  would  be  void  and  meaningless."  To  this  allegation  we 
reply  by  question  only.  Is  there  no  meaning  in  the  doctrine  of 
God's  existence?  No  meaning  in  His  attributes.  His  goodness, 
His  mercy,  His  redemption?  Is  there  no  meaning  in  heaven,  hell, 
judgment?  If  these  words  are  not  impregnated  with  signification, 
then  all  language  is  sound  and  nothing  more.     So  much  vitality 


42  APOLOGETICA, 

have  all  these  terms,  so  persistent  are  they,  so  intelligible  do  they 
make  all  human  expression,  so  much  faith  of  heart  and  mind  goes 
into  their  use  by  the  sons  of  men  that  without  them  the  sum  of 
all  that  is  beautiful  and  inspiring  in  human  speech  would  be  lost. 
These  words  are  what  they  are  not  because  men  invented  them 
aimlessly,  but  because  they  were  the  only  terms  they  could  find  to 
express  the  great  truths  they  convey. 


XXL— (5o&  Can  mot  »e  Itnowtt. 

Introduction. — We  have  always,  on  general  principles  of  logic, 
the  right  to  deny  the  above  assertion  and  every  kindred  assertion. 
In  spite  of  centuries  of  attack  in  which  every  ingenious  argument 
has  been  put  forward,  and  always  at  its  full  value,  the  efforts  of 
the  infidel  have  never  culminated  in  proof.  It  will  always  be  the 
case  that  atheism  will  be  characterized  by  denial.  The  atheistic 
school  is  really  a  negative  school.  There  is  no  limit  to  its  repudi- 
ation of  accepted  truth.  There  is  no  truth  which,  under  given  cir- 
cumstances, it  will  not  refuse  to  admit.  If  by  admitting  that  two 
and  two  make  four,  they  were  logically  compelled  to  profess  the 
existence  of  God,  they  would  deny  that  arithmetical  fact.  When 
we  consider  how  easy  one  may  become  a  victim  of  this  pernicious 
doctrine,  when  we  consider  how  easy  it  is  to  lose  one's  faith  by 
a  disregard  for  its  moral  obligations,  we  can  not  be  too  much  on 
our  guard.  Faith  is  more  easily  lost  than  recovered.  Yet  to  one 
who  has  gone  to  the  guilty  extreme  of  denying  God's  existence, 
and  who  begins  to  enter  into  himself  and  to  behold  how  far  he  has 
wandered  from  the  Father's  house,  to  one  upon  whose  tastes  the 
husks  fall,  to  one  in  whose  breast  home  yearnings  are  awakening, 
there  is  a  path  of  deliverance  always  open.  There  is  prayer,  there 
is  reflection.  As  helps  to  meditation  whence  light  may  come  and 
whereby  the  soul  be  prepared  for  the  renewal  of  faith  we  suggest 
the  following: 

In  our  efforts  to  aid  them  we  are  to  trust  not  so  much  to 
science,  reasoning,  eloquence,  as  to  prayer,  virtue,  gentleness. 

43 


44  APOLOGETICA. 

I.  We  must  inquire  what  our  patient  admits,  denies,  or  doubts. 
In  all  cases  the  process  of  enlightenment  will  reveal  some  ignorance 
and  much  contradiction.  The  infidel  will  grant  and  deny  without 
stint.  He  is  to  be  questioned  about  the  meaning  of  the  terms  he 
uses,  about  miracle,  mystery,  and  revelation.  He  must  have  gently 
but  firmly  forced  upon  him  the  weakness  of  the  arguments  advanced 
by  those  in  whose  footsteps  he  is  walking.  Nothing  about  the  moral 
character  of  the  leaders  of  incredulity  is  to  be  concealed  from  him. 
He  is  to  be  referred  to  their  biographies.  More  than  anything  else, 
is  the  insufficiency  of  these  men  to  be  emphasized.  What  have 
they  done,  what  can  they  do  in  the  light  of  their  principles  for  the 
individual,  the  family,  the  state?  What  have  they  done  him?  Has 
he  been  uplifted  or  plunged  into  depths  from  which  he  is  eager 
to  be  rescued?  Have  they  made  him  proud  of  himself  or  has  he 
been  deceived  and  humiliated?  Let  him  be  shown  how  their  works 
are  full  of  misrepresentation  and  of  lies,  full  of  calumnies  against 
religion  as  old  as  the  world.  They  have  been  unfair,  unjust.  They 
have  conspired  in  their  histories  against  the  truth  to  such  a  de- 
gree that  their  pages  are  criminal  with  patent  forgeries.  They 
boast  of  freedom  of  thought,  and  yet  they  have  been,  mentally, 
slaves  to  error  and  falsehood.  They  have  expelled  light  from  their 
minds,  and  lo !  there  is  nothing  therein  but  darkness.  They  are  not 
among  the  best  of  mankind — not  among  the  benefactors  of  the  race. 
Had  they  been  the  leaders  of  humanity,  how  long  would  mankind 
have  flourished? 

n.  How  deplorable  would  be  man's  condition  without  belief 
in  God!  So  necessary  is  God,  that  were  He  not,  that  one 
would  be  the  truest  benefactor  of  man  who  would  invent  God. 
Stress  is  to  be  laid  on  the  fountains  of  atheism,  pride,  lust,  moral 
corruption  of  any  kind,  bad  logic;  in  fact,  anything  which  con- 


GOD    CAN   NOT   BE    KNOWN,  45 

tradicts  or  threatens  or  destroys  the  purity  and  dignity  of  man^s 
body  and  mind  and  soul.  In  this  wise,  and  with  God's  help,  he 
may  be  brought  to  the  truth.  The  more  we  reflect,  the  more  we 
become  convinced  that,  of  all  men,  the  atheist  is  the  most  criminal 
and  the  most  degraded.  His  guilt  is  deicidal.  To  think  of  it !  He 
is  unwilling  that  God  should  be,  God  all  perfect,  but  he  is  satisfied 
that  he,  such  a  pygmy  and  so  full  of  imperfections  and  limitations, 
should  possess  existence. 


XXIL— miraclee  Hre  Hn  HbeurMtij- 

Introduction, — This  is  another  rallying  call  of  infidelity.  It  is 
unsupported  by  truth,  however,  and  is  unreasonable  in  the  last 
degree.  It  is  a  pity  that  there  is  not  a  counter  cry  ever  on  the  lips 
of  those  who  believe.  The  Christian  should  be  as  strong  to  pro- 
claim his  doctrine  as  is  the  unbeliever.  The  boast  of  the  atheist 
would  not  be  so  ubiquitous  and  loud  were  the  believer  as  brave 
in  his  truth  as  the  infidel  is  valorous  in  his  lie.  Our  cry  should  be, 
"  There  must  be  a  God."  There  must  be  a  knowable  God.  Man 
is  helpless  without  God,  or,  to  put  it  in  their  style,  man  can  not  get 
along  without  God,  he  can  not  be,  he  can  not  live,  he  can  not 
breathe,  he  can  not  think  without  God.  He  would  never  be  were 
it  not  for  God.  It  is  really  tiresome  to  have  to  go  over  and  over 
again  the  ground  that  the  defenders  of  the  faith  have  traveled 
over  and  over  since  the  beginning.  It  is  tiresome,  yet  it  must  be 
done.  Just  as  soon  as  we  go  behind  the  walls  to  rest,  immediately 
swarms  of  invaders  arise  as  if  by  magic,  and  once  more  the  fight 
is  on.  To  the  fling  of  theirs  against  miracles  our  answer  is  that 
they  are  not  absurd.     They  have  been  and  they  are  every  day. 

I.  A  miracle  is  not  an  impossibility.  Miracles  are  denied  by 
those  who  refuse  to  admit  the  existence  of  God.  That  they  are 
possible  is  also  rejected  by  those  who  believe  in  God  but  reject 
any  interference  on  the  part  of  the  Deity  in  the  affairs  of  creation. 
All  they  allege  against  the  miracle  is  but  a  tissue  of  statements 
without  demonstration.  We  might  answer  them  by  stating  that 
miracles  are  possible,  because  they  have  occurred.    Apply  the  his- 

46 


MIRACLES   ARE   AN   ABSURDITY,  47 

torical  test  to  any  of  the  stupendous  happenings  of  Christianity — to 
the  resurrection  of  Christ,  let  us  say.  Is  there  anything  more 
luminously  attested  in  the  annals  of  the  world?  But  the  enemies 
of  faith  say  No ;  there  was  never  a  resurrection  from  the  dead,  be- 
cause a  miracle  is  an  absurdity;  that  is,  something  which  should 
neither  be  spoken  of  nor  listened  to  by  any  one  claiming  to  be  a 
reasonable  being.  What  is  a  miracle?  It  is  an  event  which  can 
not  be  brought  about  by  any  process  of  nature,  nor  by  the  action 
of  man,  or  of  angels,  good  or  bad.  It  is  just  the  fact  that  no  natural 
agent  can  perform  it  that  makes  it  possible.  We  have  to  ascribe 
it  to  God,  to  whom  all  things  are  possible.  God  can  not  change 
the  law  of  nature.  Were  He  to  wish  to  do  so,  He  could.  But  the 
miracle  does  not  suppose  a  change  in  the  laws  of  nature — ^those  so 
vaunted  laws  of  nature  about  which  scientists  know  so  little — it 
merely  supposes  that  the  action  of  such  or  such  an  agent  is  for  the 
time  suspended.  Witness  the  security  of  the  youths  in  the  fiery 
furnace.  Has  not  the  Deity  the  same  privileges  as  are  granted  to 
any  other  framer  of  laws?  To  what  does  he,  who  rejects  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  miracle,  reduce  the  great  Creator  of  the  universe? 
To  the  position  of  a  grand  inert  Lama  in  an  Asiatic  temple. 

II.  Miracles  are  probable.  There  is  a  law  of  nature,  but  there 
is  a  law  of  humanity,  of  love,  of  providence.  Man  is  to  be  looked 
after.  There  are  emotions  of  his  being  which  must  be  respected. 
If  there  are  no  such  things  possible  as  miracles,  then  let  man  never 
lift  up  his  eyes  heavenward,  let  him  never  fall  on  his  knees  in 
prayer  before  God.  Let  him  address  himself  to  the  laws  of  nature. 
I  might  say,  what  is  the  use  (pardon  the  expression)  of  God  if  He 
can  not  perform  miracles?  When  there  is  question  of  propagating 
religion  the  people  preached  to  ask  for  some  wonder,  that  is,  they 
asked  for  miracle.    The  demand  for  miracles  is  ubiquitous.    The 


48  APOLOGETICA. 

farmer  asks  for  rain.  The  mariner  asks  for  the  calming  of  the 
tempest.  Says  St.  Thomas  equivalently  (Contr.  Gent.  iii.  96) : 
"  All  heard  prayers  are  not  miracles,  but  many  miracles  are  heard 
prayers."  We  may  go  a  step  further  and  say  not  only  is  the 
miracle  possible,  not  only  is  it  possible,  but  it  is  certain.  Consult 
history. 


XXIIL— fiiMracle0  are  llncrebible^ 

Introduction. — This  means  that  no  mind  which  respects  itself 
can  admit  miracles.  Of  this  something  has  been  said  already.  The 
warfare  against  God  which  has  been  going  on  since  the  beginning 
may  take  different  aspects,  but  the  difference  is  superficial  only.  The 
conflict  is  waged  against  God.  It  has  for  its  aim  the  extinction  in 
every  mind  of  all  thoughts  of  God ;  in  every  heart  of  all  aspiration 
toward  Him,  in  all  the  energy  of  mankind  of  every  deed  which 
directly  or  indirectly  may  acknowledge  His  existence  or  His  suprem- 
acy. The  campaign  proceeds  directly  by  repudiating  His  being, 
indirectly  by  limiting  or  by  affecting  to  misunderstand  His  infinite 
perfection.  Take  away  or  diminish  in  any  manner  His  attributes, 
and  the  logical  inference  is  that  He  is  not.  We  must  grant  Him 
infinity  in  every  relation,  we  must  grant  Him  power,  knowledge, 
goodness,  justice,  mercy  without  bounds;  otherwise  He  ceases  to 
be  God.  Something  has  already  been  hinted  about  miracles,  but 
a  few  more  ideas  will  usefully  find  place  herein,  and,  moreover,  what 
we  advance  about  His  power  may  be  advanced  concerning  His 
knowledge,  concerning,  in  fact,  any  of  His  perfections.  Again  we 
profess  that  in  the  light  of  reason  we  can  not  consistently,  a  priori, 
reject  miracles. 

I.  Miracles  are  Credible  because  they  are  Possible. — It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  a  miracle  is  an  effect  which  only  God  can  produce. 
If  there  be  effects  which  in  themselves  seem  producible  by  a  finite 

49 


so  APOLOGETICA. 

cause,  there  is  something  in  the  method  of  their  production  which 
can  be  ascribed  to  God  only.  If  miracles  are  impossible,  it  is  be- 
cause God  is  not  omnipotent.  To  deny  infinite  power  to  God  is  to 
deny  His  infinite  nature — it  is  to  hem  Him  in  with  obstacles  or 
limits.  He  can  not  be  hemmed  in  by  His  own  nature,  which  is 
boundless.  He  can  not  be  impeded  by  one  above  Him.  No  one  is 
above  Him.  Certainly  He  can  not  be  shackled  by  any  one  beneath 
Him.  H  He  can  not  produce  an  effect  beyond  the  forces  of  nature, 
beyond  the  entire  forces  of  entire  nature,  if  He  can  not  suspend 
the  laws  of  nature,  if  He  can  not  act  against  those  laws,  it  is  because 
He  is  dependent  upon  those  laws.  This  idea  must  be  rejected,  for 
He  is  the  framer  of  these  laws,  and  they  are  His  to  dispense  with  as 
He  deems  fit.  Grant  that  some  hitherto  undreamed  of  miracle  were 
performed,  an  occurrence  divinely  ordered  whereby  a  change  would 
be  introduced  into  the  order  of  things,  we  ask.  Is  the  present  the  only 
order  possible?  We  ask.  Is  not  God  Master,  and  is  it  not  in  His 
power  to  change  even  the  very  order  of  things,  and  while  so  doing, 
counteract  all  evil  consequences  ?  Moreover,  what  we  understand  as 
evil  consequences  may  in  some  higher  plane  be  harmony  ineffable. 

II.  A  God  who  reveals  truth  must  mark  His  revelation,  which 
is  His  official  declaration  to  His  creation,  with  some  unmistakable 
stamp.  The  seal  which  will  gain  universal  credence  more  easily 
is  the  miracle  of  deed  or  the  miracle  of  word  which  we  call  prophecy, 
and  which  is  the  certain  announcement  of  a  fact  to  take  place  in 
the  future,  a  fact  which  can  not  naturally  be  known  in  the  present. 
It  is  a  prediction,  not  a  guess,  not  a  conjecture.  It  is  in  the  order 
of  miracles  and  generally  communicates  supernatural  facts.  It  is 
not  made  at  random.  It  is  always  solemn.  It  is  evident  that 
prophecy  proceeds  from  the  spirit  of  God  only.    It  can  be  ascribed 


MIRACLES  ARE   INCREDIBLE.  51 

to  Him  only  who  possesses  the  whole  domain  of  truth.  In  all 
times  and  among  all  peoples  prophecy  has  been  considered  as  a 
communication  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  is  an  infallible  mark  of 
the  intervention  of  the  Deity.  Miracle  and  prophecy  are  both  within 
the  perfection  of  God — for  He  is  all  powerful  and  He  knows  all 
things. 


XXIV.— fiDpeterlee  are  Tllnwortb)?  of  tbe 
Ibuman  flDlnb* 

Introduction. — This  assertion  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  assertions 
against  revealed  truth,  because  fundamentally  in  the  intellectual 
order,  man's  pride  is  hurt,  for  that  he  can  not  understand  and  hence, 
in  his  unreasonable  indignation,  he  does  not  blame  his  own  finiteness, 
but  the  vast  cycle  of  verity  which  lies  beyond  his  comprehension. 
There  should  be  no  mysteries  for  him.  Everything  should  float 
within  his  mental  ken  and  nothing  should  be  outside  the  grasp  of  his 
intelligence.  It  is  the  drop  of  water  that  clamors  to  be  a  sea.  It 
is  the  glow  worm  which  wishes  to  be  a  star.  Still,  more  deep  yet,  is 
the  reason  that  he  wishes  to  find  some  excuse  for  wandering  at  his 
own  free  will  among  forbidden  pastures.  Give  me  something  that 
I  can  understand,  and  I  will  surrender.  This  is  his  protest,  flat,  un- 
profitable, stale.  Very  little  consolation  in  this  attitude.  The  proper 
disposition  of  the  human  mind  is  merely  to  accept  without  under- 
standing what  is  proposed  by  an  infinite  intelligence  through  an 
infallible  teacher. 

I.  What  is  a  mystery?  It  is  a  supernatural  truth  or  fact.  It 
can  neither  be  understood  nor  disproved  by  human  reason.  It  con- 
tradicts no  law  of  the  understanding.  Even  the  German  rationalist, 
Goethe,  insists  that  the  intelligence  of  man  and  the  intelligence  of 
God  are  two  very  different  things.  To  deny  the  possibility  of  the 
mystery,  to  deny  that  mystery  exists,  is  to  elevate  the  limited  mind 
of  man  to  a  level  with  the  boundless  mind  of  God.  To  deny  that 
God  can  reveal  a  mystery  is  to  deny  conscious  life  and  free  will  to 

!i2 


MYSTERIES  UNWORTHY  OF  HUMAN  MIND.        53 

the  Divinity.  Man  can  not  arrive  at  a  clear  and  adequate  idea  of 
the  essence  of  God  and  of  His  attributes.  How  many  varieties, 
therefore,  in  the  very  being  of  God  which,  soar  as  he  may,  he  can  not 
find?  These  are  the  mysteries.  Without  revelation  there  are  facts 
and  truths  which  man  would  never  think  of,  much  less  understand. 
It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  man  only  perceives  truth,  and  so, 
since  the  expanse  of  truth  is  limitless,  since  God  is  substantial 
truth,  mystery  is  not  only  a  possibility  but  an  actuality,  a  necessity, 
n.  There  are  mysteries  everywhere,  and  we  admit  them.  Has 
the  naturalist  penetrated  the  intimate  nature  of  any  body?  How 
much  is  known  about  forces?  About  life?  About  death?  We 
may  know  the  mechanism  of  a  watch,  because  man  has  made  it. 
Man  may  dissect  a  corpse — can  he  revive  it?  There  is  mystery  in 
the  grain  of  sand  on  the  ocean's  margin,  mystery  in  the  drop  of 
water,  in  the  flower,  in  the  tree,  in  the  small  insect,  in  the  largest 
animal,  in  man.  No  man  possesses  complete  knowledge  of  any  one 
thing.  The  scientist  has  imprisoned  light  and  electricity;  does  he 
adequately  comprehend  a  ray  of  the  one  or  a  spark  of  the  other? 
Does  he  understand  the  human  eye,  the  human  soul?  The  atheist 
denies  God  because  he  can  not  understand  the  existence  of  a  being 
eternal  and  everywhere  present,  but  is  not  a  universe  without  a  God 
an  enigma  still  more  inexplicable?  The  Pantheist  denies  creation 
because  he  can  not  conceive  of  a  world  coming  from  nothing,  but 
is  it  not  as  difficult  to  believe  in  the  world  as  an  emanation  from  God 
as  a  finite  being  infinite?  So  it  is  for  the  professions  that  reject 
mystery.  They  refuse  to  admit  one  mysterious  truth,  and  they 
throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  a  thousand  incomprehensibilities. 
There  is  no  contradiction  implied  in  the  mystery.  In  the  Trinity 
there  would  be  an  absurdity  were  we  called  upon  to  admit  the  ex- 
istence of  one  God  and  of  three  Gods.     No!     Revealed  mysteries 


54  APOLOGETICA. 

are  the  landmarks  of  truth.  They  keep  the  human  mind  within 
bounds.  In  their  light — if  I  may  use  the  word  while  speaking  of 
mysteries — the  human  mind  will  be  prevented  from  going  astray 
in  its  conclusions.  Moreover,  they  dignify  man's  intelligence.  No 
humiliation  in  bowing  down  to  them  in  willing  surrender.  On  the 
contrary,  one  bends  to  a  royal  Master,  and  one  rises  ennobled,  and 
with  the  light  that  illumineth  upon  one. 


XXV.— (5oi)  Docs  *lot  Care  for  tbe  Morl^ 

Introduction. — Theism  and  Deism  are  radically  the  same  words, 
but  there  may  be  a  distinction  drawn  between  them.  Theists,  as 
we  are  at  liberty  to  conclude  from  their  writings,  maintain  the  ex- 
istence of  a  Deity  who  governs  all  things  by  the  constant  exercise 
of  His  beneficent  power;  Deists  admit  the  existence  of  a  God  who 
created  all  things,  but  affirm  that,  having  laid  down  immutable  laws 
for  their  government.  He  does  not  further  interfere.  The  declaration 
that  God  does  not  care  for  the  world  implies  that  it  is  of  no  service 
whatever  to  refer  to  the  great  Ruler ;  that  His  solicitude  ceased  with « 
the  termination  of  His  creative  act,  and  that  men  and  women  are 
mere  crawling  things  on  the  surface  of  His  footstool,  and  whether 
they  come  or  go,  live  or  die,  are  happy  or  unhappy,  is  a  matter  of 
complete  indifference  to  Him.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  anything 
more  blasphemous  than  this.  It  is  cruel  to  man,  it  is  unjust  to  God. 
As  well  might  God  not  be  as  to  show  no  concern  for  His  creatures. 
It  is  simply  a  denial  of  Providence. 

I.  What  is  Providence  f  It  is  forethought  on  the  part  of  God. 
It  expresses  His  never  ceasing  power  exerted  in  and  over  all  His 
works.  It  is  the  opposite  of  "  chance,"  "  fortune,"  "  luck."  We  may 
call  it  a  continuance  of  creation.  In  relation  to  all  things  it  is  uni- 
versal, and  nothing  is  too  minute  for  its  regard.  For  moral  beings 
it  is  special.  Each  object  is  watched  over  by  Providence  according 
to  its  capacity.    God's  providence  is  concerned  in  a  sparrow's  fall. 

55 


56  APOLOGETICA, 

His  children  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows,  and  so  are 
assured  of  His  providential  care  in  all  their  concerns.  Its  acts  are 
threefold:  preservation,  cooperation,  and  government.  He  controls 
all  things  for  the  highest  good  of  the  whole,  acting  upon  every 
species  according  to  its  nature;  inanimate  things  by  physical  in- 
fluences, brutes  by  instinct  and  free  agents,  according  to  the  laws  of 
free  agency.  Providence  displays  God's  omnipresence,  holiness,  jus- 
tice, benevolence.  If  the  telescope  reveals  the  immense  magnitude 
and  countless  hosts  of  worlds  which  He  created  and  sustains,  the 
microscope  shows  that  His  providence  equally  concerns  itself  with 
the  minutest  animalcule.  Nothing  is  really  small  with  God.  He  hangs 
the  most  momentous  weights  on  little  wires.  We  have  quoted  from 
a  non-Catholic  source  (Fausset)  because  it  describes  clearly  the 
philosophical  notion  of  providence,  and  without  a  proper  under- 
standing of  the  same  it  is  impossible  to  explain  satisfactorily  to  our- 
selves the  objections  which  in  the  eyes  of  many  militate  against  this 
wonderful  and  adorable  attribute  of  the  Divinity.  In  favor  of  provi- 
dence we  may  advance  general  proofs. 

II.  There  must  he  a  Providence.  God  must  have  a  care  for  His 
world.  What  would  the  absence  of  providence  argue  in  the  Deity? 
It  would  accuse  the  Supreme  Being  of  cruelty.  It  would  imply  that 
the  material  and  animal  worlds  are  dearer  to  Him  than  the  world 
of  man.  For  it  is  chiefly  that  God  does  not  take  care  of  man  which 
originates  this  implied  censure  of  God's  providence.  It  would  mean 
that  God's  attributes  of  omniscience  (which  has  been  called  the  eye 
of  providence),  of  mercy,  and  justice  are  nothing  but  limited  vision, 
pitilessness,  injustice.  It  would  deny  His  power.  His  wisdom.  His 
holiness.  In  a  general  way  it  would  reduce  the  God  of  the  universe 
to  a  blind,  feelingless  entity.    It  would  afford  an  excuse  for  man  to 


GOD  DOES  NOT  CARE  EOR  THE  WORLD.  57 

listen  to  every  voice  of  passion  and  make  him  curse  the  day  he  came 
into  existence.  There  is  no  crime  which  would  not  follow  in  the 
wake  of  this  misconception  of  divine  providence.  This  is  only  a 
general  argument.  Yet,  general  as  it  is,  it  forces  conviction.  It 
drives  us  to  the  dilemma,  either  God  is  provident  or  He  does  not 
exist  at  all. 


XXVL— (Bob  Doee  IRot  Care  for  tbe  Morl^ 

Introduction. — Probably  there  is  no  cry  goes  up  to  heaven  so  fre- 
quently as  this  cry  of  the  discontented.  The  world  is  largely  made 
up  of  the  discontented.  They  are  found  in  every  situation  of  ex- 
istence. They  are  not  confined  to  the  poor  and  suffering  alone. 
The  clamor  of  discontent  frequently  rises  from  the  hearts  of  the 
well  and  the  prosperous.  Here  we  have  a  proof  that  perfect  happi- 
ness is  not  found  here  below.  It  is  evidence  that  nothing  on  this 
earth  can  make  a  man  supremely  happy.  It  is  well  to  understand 
that  flawless  happiness  is  not  of  this  world.  Man  may  be  contented 
here  always;  happy,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  never.  Man  is 
not  made  for  this  world.  Man  is  made  for  God,  and  until  he  obtains 
possession  of  God  his  heart-hunger  will  never  be  appeased.  It  is 
the  losing  sight  of  this  great  truth  which  makes  man  dissatisfied, 
begets  misunderstanding  and  fills  this  world  with  unreasonable  re- 
criminations against  Providence.  As  soon  as  man  realizes  this 
important  verity,  he  will  begin  to  understand,  in  some  small  degree, 
at  least,  the  ways  of  God  in  His  dealings  with  man.  Man  complains 
of  the  physical  evils  which  he  encounters  on  his  journey  through 
life,  but 

I.  Physical  evils  are  no  arguments  against  providence.  By 
physical  ills  we  understand  the  calamities  which  visit  mankind.  We 
understand  the  three  great  evils  of  the  world,  war,  pestilence,  famme, 
and  everything  which  follows  in  their  wake.  This  is  why,  according 
to  Lactantius  1.  c.  c.  13,  epicures  denied  that  the  Deity  exercised 
providence  toward  His  creatures.  Says  St.  Augustine,  "  We  refrain 
from  censuring  the  workman  in  his  workshop,  but  we  are  not  afraid 

58 


GOD  DOES  NOT  CARE  FOR  THE  WORLD.  59 

to  blame  God  in  his  world."  An  unskilled  man  entering  a  workshop 
sees  many  tools  of  which  he  does  not  understand  the  nature  and  the 
use.  Perhaps  he  may  even  go  to  the  extreme  of  considering  them 
as  superfluous.  In  handling  them  he  may  wound  himself;  then  he 
cries  out  against  them  as  harmful.  So  in  the  world,  says  the  same 
doctor,  men  reprehend  God,  the  creator  and  the  administrator  of  all 
things,  because  they  liehold  causes  in  action,  causes  of  the  nature 
and  tendency  of  which  they  have  not  the  slightest  knowledge.  Man, 
hence,  instead  of  censuring,  should  profess  his  ignorance,  and  wonder 
and  adore.  Alan,  in  presence  of  physical  evils,  should  remember  that 
a  careful  ruler  must  look  out  for  the  general  good ;  should  remem- 
ber that  in  all  things  care  for  the  universal  weal  must  at  times  bring 
about  private  inconvenience  and  damage.  Man  should  not  forget 
that  the  perfection  of  the  universe  calls  for  veracity.  He  should 
not  forget  that  what  displeases  him  may  bring  pleasure  to  others. 
Therefore,  unless  he  wishes  to  lay  himself  open  to  being  considered 
ignorant  and  selfish,  he  must  remain  silent  in  presence  of  the  hap- 
penings in  the  universe. 

II.  Faith  proves  that  there  is  a  providence^  and  that  God  does 
take  care  of  the  world.  When  we  open  the  eyes  of  our  faith,  provi- 
dence is  immediately  vindicated.  Our  faith  teaches  us  that  all 
these  evils  are  consequences  of  man's  first  disobedience,  and  hence 
are  to  be  ascribed  not  to  God,  but  to  our  first  parents.  They  may 
reasonably  be  considered  as  the  penalty  of  actual  transgression.  They 
are,  besides,  the  occasion  of  satisfying  and  of  meriting.  They  are, 
moreover,  a  wholesome  stimulus  in  the  formation  of  character,  and 
they  keep  our  hearts  uplifted  toward  that  home  for  which  we  are 
all  destined.  These  considerations  are  based  upon  faith,  but  they 
are  also  built  up  on  that  great  primal  prevarication  which,  while  it 
is  a  religious  dogma,  is  at  the  same  time  a  fact  historically  attested. 


xxviL— (Bob  Does  mot  Care  for  tbe  movio. 

Introduction. — This  libel  on  the  perfections  of  the  Divinity  is  an 
emanation  rather  from  a  morbid  disposition  than  from  a  well 
balanced  mind.  Even  among  the  pagans,  whose  conception  of  God 
were  so  blurred  by  egotism  and  prejudice,  were  found  philosophers 
who,  following  the  dictates  of  reason  alone,  argued  wisely  and  con- 
vincingly in  favor  of  the  important  fact  that  God  does  not  abandon 
His  creatures.  They  listened  to  and  they  were  familiar  with  the 
complaints  of  querulous,  shortsighted  men;  they  heard  the  clamors 
that  incessantly  rose  about  them — clamors  accusing  the  Deity  of 
partiality  and  unwisdom  in  dealing  with  the  human  race.  On  all 
sides  their  ears  were  assailed  by  the  cry  that  the  wicked  prospered 
while  the  good  were  plunged  into  the  depths  of  all  sorts  of  ad- 
versity. We  may  hear  the  ululations  of  David,  "  My  steps  had  well 
nigh  slipped  .  .  .  seeing  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked"  (Ps. 
Ixxii.  2),  and  of  Job,  "  Why,  then,  do  the  wicked  live,  are  they  ad- 
vanced and  strengthened  with  riches?"  (Job  xxi.  7)  ;  and  of  Jere- 
miah, "  Why  is  it  well  with  all  of  them  that  transgress  and  do 
wickedly?"  (Jer.  xii.  i).  This  is  one  form  which  the  allegations 
against  Providence  take. 

I.  But  there  is  a  Providence.  These  reproaches  are  exaggerated, 
for  not  all  the  wicked  abound  in  the  things  of  this  world,  nor  are 
all  the  deserving  deprived  of  them.  Besides,  there  is  no  account 
taken  of  the  other  good  things  which  the  virtuous  enjoy.  Reputa- 
tion, for  example,  health,  worthy  children,   peace  of  mind,  and 

60 


GOD  DOES  NOT  CARE  FOR  THE  WORLD.  6i 

resignation.  These  things  are  more  than  compensation.  Again, 
evil  doers  are  not  happy.  They  alone  know  the  mental  tortures 
which  are  theirs — remorse,  fear,  suspicion,  envy,  jealousy,  and  the 
like,  so  many  spectres  that  render  unbearable  the  banquet  of  de- 
lights which  seems  to  be  their  share.  Moreover,  none  of  these  ex- 
ceptions taken  against  Providence  are  of  any  weight  save  to  those 
who  believe  (?)  that  the  grave  is  the  end  of  the  whole  man,  that 
consciousness  extinct  on  this  side  is  not  reawakened  beyond.  But 
for  those  who  know  that  there  is  perfect  felicity  for  them  some- 
where, though  not  in  this  world,  all  the  calamities  of  existence  are 
as  nothing.  To  quote  St.  Augustine :  "  These  ills  are  profitable, 
when  piously  borne.  They  diminish  wrong  doing,  they  try  virtue, 
they  demonstrate  the  vanity  of  existence,  and  they  awaken  a  desire 
for  the  quick  coming  of  that  kingdom  wherein  alone  beatitude  is  real 
and  perpetual." 

II.  Our  authoritative  teachers  explain  the  reason  or  advance  the 
reasons  of  this  inequality  of  distribution  in  the  matter  of  the  good 
things  of  earth.  St.  Augustine  (De  Civ.  Dei)  :  "  Were  God  to 
punish  now  all  manifest  sins,  nothing  would  be  reserved  for  the 
last  judgment.  If  He  punished  no  sin  here,  His  providence  would 
be  discredited."  So  in  things  of  secondary  importance.  If  God 
did  not  bestow  them  on  some  abundantly,  we  might  be  inclined  to 
say  that  He  was  not  Master  of  them.  Likewise,  if  He  gave  to  all 
who  asked,  we  might  conclude  that  He  was  to  be  obeyed  simply 
on  account  of  these  gifts — an  idea  which,  instead  of  rendering  us 
pious  servants,  would  fill  us  with  cupidity  and  avarice.  It  is  to 
be  kept  in  mind  that  the  verdict  of  the  holy  fathers  in  matters  of 
religious  truth  was  not  based  upon  revelation  only.  They  were 
men  who  met  and  faced  honestly  all  the  difficulties  which  the  op- 


62  APOLOGETICA, 

ponents  of  religion  brought  to  bear  against  truth.  Hence  they 
answered  as  the  occasion  demanded.  They  met  revelation  with 
revelation,  authority  with  authority,  Scripture  with  Scripture,  and 
reason  with  reason.  When  we  quote  them  here  we  quote  them  for 
the  value  of  the  reasons  they  furnish  forth. 


XXVIIL— (Bob  2>oes  mot  Care  for  Ibis  Morlb. 

Introduction. — In  dealing  with  the  Creator  in  His  acts  toward 
mankind  there  are  two  facts  which  should  not  be  lost  sight  of. 
These  two  facts  are  the  free  will  of  God  and  the  free  will  of  His 
rational  creatures.  The  Lord  is  Master,  and  His  sway  supreme. 
Whatever  He  wills  we  must  submit  to  without  repining.  This 
resignation  is  demanded  of  us  by  the  very  nature  of  the  revelation 
which  exists  between  Him  and  us.  His  reason  for  all  His  opera- 
tions lies  in  this  one  assertion  of  His,  "  I  am  the  Lord,  thy  God." 
Sometimes  we  may  be  able  to  understand  the  why  and  the  wherefore 
of  His  performances.  Sometimes  they  are  too  deep  for  our  fathom- 
ing. In  either  case  ours  only  to  listen  and  follow.  Besides  the  free 
will  of  the  Deity  and  His  power  over  all  the  works  of  His  hands, 
there  is  a  negative  attitude  of  God  in  the  affairs  of  the  race.  He 
does  not  will.  He  concurs  physically,  it  is  true,  but  He  simply 
does  not  check.  He  permits.  This  brings  us  to  the  second  fact 
that  many  occurrences  are  attributable  only  indirectly  to  God  and 
directly  to  man.  Yet  is  the  providence  of  God  so  manifest  that  out 
of  evil  He  produces  good. 

I.  The  holy  fathers  are  strenuous  advocates  of  God's  providence. 
The  reasons  advanced  by  St.  John  Chrysostom  for  the  unequal  dis- 
tribution of  temporal  benefits  are  cogent.  He  affects  the  saints,  lest 
they  be  puffed  up ;  that  they  may  not  have  an  overweening  opinion 
of  themselves;  that  others  may  not  esteem  them  too  highly;  that 

63 


64  APOLOGETICA. 

the  power  of  God  may  be  evidenced  in  their  regard ;  and  that  their 
labors  for  the  salvation  of  others  may  be  more  fruitful.  The  just 
suffer  in  order  that  their  patience  may  shine  in  a  dark  world,  that 
their  thoughts  and  the  thoughts  of  others  may  be  lifted  up  beyond 
this  sphere,  in  order  that  their  mode  of  life  may  run  in  ordinary 
grooves,  and  that  this  example  may  not  be  pitched  too  high  for 
others  to  follow. 

Let  us  add  to  these  reasons,  which  certainly  go  far  toward  proving 
that  in  all  that  God  does  or  allows  He  is  exercising  a  care  over 
the  members  of  the  human  family,  let  us  add  that  even  if  we  look 
at  suffering  in  the  light  of  punishment  and  at  prosperity  in  the 
light  of  reward,  it  is,  nevertheless,  true  that  no  one  is  so  utterly 
abandoned  that  he  has  never  done  a  good  deed,  and  no  one  so  per- 
fect as  never  to  have  been  guilty  of  some  transgression.  God  is  so 
just  that  He  never  forgets  to  reward,  as  He  never  is  unmindful 
of  the  sanction  which  attaches  to  all  His  laws. 

n.  History  vindicates  providence.  That  masterpiece  of  all  time, 
'"  The  City  of  God,"  by  St.  Augustine,  and  all  the  philosophers  of 
history  written  in  a  fair  spirit,  make  clear  to  all  who  read  the  in- 
tervention for  good  of  God  in  the  affairs  of  the  world.  Looking 
upon  Scripture  as  the  authenticated  chronicle  which  it  is,  we  find 
that  the  histories  of  Israel  and  of  Gentile  nations  show  that  right- 
eousness exalteth  a  nation.  The  preparations  made  for  the  coming 
of  Christ,  the  distinct  prophecies,  the  saving  of  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures, the  fate  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  multiplication  and  dis- 
persion of  the  Jews,  all  the  many  events  narrated  of  private  indi- 
viduals or  nations  in  the  Bible — all  this  and  more  makes  us  realize 
that  the  very  hairs  of  our  head  are  numbered,  that  not  one  is  for- 
gotten among  countless  multitudes,  that  God  upholdeth  all  things 


GOD  CARES  NOT  FOR  HIS  WORLD.  65 

by  the  word  of  His  power,  that  by  Him  all  things  consist,  and  that 
the  Most  High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men.  There  are  mysteries 
undoubtedly  connected  with  special  acts  of  divine  providence.  It 
must  be  so,  for  His  providence,  like  all  His  attributes,  is  infinite.  We 
may  trust  God,  for 

"All  discord   (is)    harmony  not   understood, 
All  partial  evil  (is)  universal  good." 


XXIX.— (Bob  dates  mot  for  Ibis  Morlb. 

Introduction. — The  more  we  study  the  affairs  of  Hfe  in  connection 
with  the  Creator,  the  more  we  become  convinced  that  the  Lord 
is  not  a  meddler,  but  a  guardian.  He  meddles  not,  because  He  re- 
spects the  great  gift  He  has  bestowed  upon  His  creatures,  the  great 
gift  of  free  will.  He  has  not  made  men  automata.  He  has  endowed 
them  with  the  liberty  of  action.  He  created  them  without  consult- 
ing them ;  but  once  created.  He  leaves  them  to  work  their  way  un- 
hampered toward  the  glorious  end  for  which  He  gave  them  being. 
We  have,  therefore,  to  take  into  consideration  the  end  of  creation. 
Providence  implies  practically  an  act  of  intelligence  which  grasps 
the  ends  and  the  means  thereunto,  and  involves  an  act  of  the  will 
which  approves  of  those  means  and  decrees  that  the  end  must  be 
attained.  We  may  call  the  execution  of  this  decree  God's  governance 
of  the  world.  This  providence  divine  has  been  attacked  in  divers 
ways.  Among  its  opponents,  besides  materialists  and  epicureans, 
evolutionists  of  the  Darwin  and  Spencer  type  are  found.  Against 
them  we  may  file  this  proposition: 

I.  God  protects  all  His  creatures,  and  in  a  special  way  man,  by 
His  ineifahle  providence,  and  leads  and  helps  them  toward  their 
destiny.  He  can  do  so  because  He  is  infinitely  powerful.  He 
must  do  so  because  He  is  all  wise.  He  does  and  will  do  so  because 
He  is  boundless  goodness.  His  power  controls  all  things.  His 
wisdom  directs  all  things.  His  goodness  safeguards  all  things,  and 
through  it  His  will  is  sincere  in  its  determination  to  consummate 
all  things  according  to  the  end  prescribed  by  their  nature.  As  man 
is  the  most  precious  of  His  creatures,  it  goes  without  saying  that 

66 


GOD  CARES  NOT  FOR  HIS  WORLD.  67 

over  him  He  exercises  a  special  watchfulness.  It  really  matters  not 
what  happens  to  man,  provided  within  his  reach  are  placed  the 
means  to  help  him  toward  the  purpose  for  which  he  has  been  given 
existence.  Man  by  unaided  reason  is  able  to  discover  that  God 
exists,  that  his  soul  is  to  endure  beyond  this  life,  that  by  the  pos- 
session of  God  alone  will  he  be  made  happy,  that  this  beatitude  will 
consist  in  knowing,  praising,  and  loving  God,  that  God  can  be  pos- 
sessed only  by  those  who  love  Him  in  this  life  and  exhibit  that  love 
by  observing  the  natural  law  according  to  their  lights,  by  observ- 
ing also  other  laws  which  are  known  to  have  been  promulgated 
directly  or  indirectly  by  Heaven,  and  by  migrating  from  this  world 
in  a  state  of  friendship  with  the  Creator. 

n.  That  God  supplies  these  means  in  sufficiency  is  beyond  all 
question.  It  is  a  conclusion  deducible  from  the  most  superficial 
consideration  of  the  divine  perfections.  Some  of  these  means  are 
furnished  by  all  created  things,  all  of  which  are  placed  in  this  world 
as  helps  to  man.  Where  revelation  is  unknown,  God  will  grant  this 
sufficience  either  by  external  assistance  or,  if  necessary,  by  illuming 
the  intelligence  and  moving  thereby  the  will.  What  man  in  this 
regard  is  unable  to  acquire  the  knowledge  of  by  himself  he  is  gen- 
erally in  a  position  to  learn  of  others.  Even  by  the  very  calamities 
which  enter  into  his  experience,  and  which  tempt  him  at  times  to 
blame  Providence,  even  by  these  may  he  be  enabled  to  read  the 
happy  consummation  for  which  he  is  intended.  In  the  eternities 
it  will  be  part  of  our  enlightenment  to  understand  that  the  very  oc- 
currences which  made  us  most  inclined  to  doubt  God's  providence 
were  the  very  happenings  that  vindicated  God*s  love  for  us  and  the 
securest  means  of  putting  it  in  our  power  to  achieve  a  glorious  im- 
mortality. "  Although  he  should  kill  me,  I  will  trust  in  him  "  (Job 
xiii.  15). 


XXX.— (Bob  Ibae  mo  Care  for  Ms  Morlb. 

Introduction. — The  clamor  that  God  is  an  improvident  Master  is 
louder  and  more  frequent  than  any  other  against  the  Deity.  The 
accusation  is  far-reaching  and  assumes  divers  forms.  He  does  not 
exist,  it  is  said,  or,  if  He  does,  He  shows  no  concern  in  the  affairs 
of  His  world.  This  is,  they  urge,  true  not  only  in  matters  temporal, 
but  in  spiritual  as  well.  Some  men  are  more  highly  favored  than 
others,  even  where  there  is  question  of  the  interests  of  men's  souls. 
Salvation,  they  allege,  is  not  within  the  reach  of  all.  There  are  men, 
and  not  a  few,  who  pass  through  life  without  a  single  chance  of  sav- 
ing their  souls  being  offered  them.  This  is  a  calumny  and  a  blas- 
phemy. Moreover,  it  directly  antagonizes  the  perfections  as  well  as 
the  existence  of  God.    We  must  concede  in  the  first  place  that, 

I.  God  sincerely  wishes  the  salvation  of  all  men.  The  contra- 
dictory of  this  thesis  has  been  held  by  Calvinists  and  Jansenists.  The 
Church,  through  the  Council  of  Trent,  utters  this  doctrine :  "  If  any 
one  affirms  that  the  grace  of  justification  is  granted  to  the  predestined 
only,  and  that  the  rest  of  mankind  are  called  but  receive  no  grace 
because  they  are  predestined  to  evil  "  (A.  S.).  Without  opening  the 
door  which  leads  to  the  thorny  mazes  of  the  mystery  of  predestination, 
our  reason  compels  us  to  admit  that  God  is  infinitely  good  and  in- 
finitely powerful,  that  He  wishes  all  to  be  saved,  that  He  gives  all  the 
means,  and  that  it  is  within  the  domain  of  His  omnipotence  and  good- 
ness to  desire  and  to  be  able  to  do  this.  There  is  only  one  obstacle 
which  prevents  the  effect  of  His  assistance,  and  that  obstacle  is  the 
impediment  which  is  opposed  to  the  divine  action  by  the  free  will  of 

68 


GOD  HAS  NO  CARE  FOR  HIS  WORLD.  69 

man.  From  the  consideration  of  the  goodness  of  God  and  of  His 
justice,  we  are  justified  in  concluding  that  no  man  who  has  reached 
the  age  of  reason  will,  in  the  moment  of  judgment,  be  able  to  excuse 
himself  for  his  misdemeanors  and  his  plight  with  the  plea  that  he 
never  had  the  wherewithal  to  act  differently  in  life.  God  could  not 
condemn  a  man  truthfully  putting  forth  such  justification  of  his 
conduct. 

II.  God  amply  provides  for  man's  eternal  welfare.  This  can  not 
be  denied  in  its  application  to  those  who  are  the  disciples  of  Christ. 
"  And  this  is  the  will  of  my  Father  that  sent  me :  that  every  one  who 
seeth  the  Son  and  believeth  in  him  may  have  life  everlasting  "  (John 
vi.  40).  "  For  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to  give  his  only  begotten 
Son"  (John  iii.  16).  There  can  be  no  doubt,  therefore,  of  God's 
earnest  will  to  save  all  those  who  believe  in  His  Son  and  abide  by 
His  teachings.  That  God  sincerely  desired  the  salvation  of  the  Jews 
is  expressed  by  the  words  of  Christ  (Matt,  xxiii.  37)  :  "Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets,  and  stonest  them  that  are 
sent  unto  thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  together  thy  chil- 
dren, as  the  hen  doth  gather  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  thou 
wouldst  not  ?  "  This  plaint  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  wonderful  de- 
liverance of  the  Jews  from  bondage,  and  the  long  line  of  prophets 
appealing  through  doctrine  and  miracle — all  this  proves  luminously 
God's  paternal  watchfulness  over  the  chosen  people.  That  over  them 
yet,  and  over  all  other  divisions  of  the  human  family,  the  same 
fatherly  care  is  extended,  not  so  largely,  but  always  sufficiently,  will 
be  apparent  from  later  considerations.  The  little  that  has  been  said 
makes  it  evident  that  it  is  impossible  in  any  rational  conception  of  the 
Deity  to  exclude  providential  action  over  all  beings  in  all  things,  and 
especially  in  things  that  appertain  to  the  welfare  of  immortal  souls. 
Let  us  bear  in  mind  two  things.     If  ever  a  man  is  lost,  he  is  lost 


70  APOLOGETICA. 

through  his  own  fault.  Deliberately  he  has  wrought  his  own  un- 
doing. "  And  thou  wouldst  not/'  said  Our  Lord,  speaking  of  the 
Jews*  rejection  of  His  mission.  God,  the  Supreme  Judge,  will  be 
within  the  right  of  His  justice  to  say  to  every  condemned  man, 
"  And  thou  wouldst  not."  Besides,  what  have  those  who  assert  that 
God's  providence  does  not  stretch  itself  over  every  adult  soul  to 
base  their  claim  upon?  The  consummation  of  divine  justice  is  be- 
yond the  grave.  No  traveler  has  returned  to  tell  mankind  the  story. 
The  "  Beyond  "  is  luminous  in  itself,  but  not  to  us  sojourners.  I 
know  not  what  man  has  been  condemned.  The  salvation  of  any 
individual  or  his  reprobation  is  outside  of  the  horizons  which  limit 
my  vision.  I  know  what  each  one  must  do  to  reach  eternal  happi- 
ness. Here  I  will  never  know  whether  after  death  he  has  met  with 
failure  or  success.  Of  all  who  have  gone  to  God,  I  can  not  affirm  of 
a  single  one  that  he  is  lost.  A  consoling  truth  this,  but  awful  is  the 
fact  that  out  of  that  innumerable  multitude  I  am  only  sure  that  the 
canonized  saints  are  in  the  halls  of  the  blessed.  As  a  corrective  of 
this  uncertainty  I  have  the  certainty  that  God's  mercy  is  above  all  His 
works. 


XXXI. -(5o&  Ibas  iRo  Care  for  1bi0  Morlb. 

Introduction. — The  fountain  of  all  spiritual  evil,  yea,  and  in  a 
measure,  of  much  physical  evil,  is  the  free  will  of  the  creature.  In 
other  words,  man,  not  God,  is  to  blame  for  all  the  immorality  (we 
use  this  term  according  to  its  primitive  meaning)  existing  among 
men.  Immorality  in  its  first  sense  signifies  thoughts,  words,  and 
actions  which  are  vicious,  which  are  contrary  to  natural  law  and 
order.  In  the  material  order  many  of  the  happenings  which  are 
characterized  as  injurious,  as  impending  physical  comfort  and  wel- 
fare, might  be  traced  to  culpable  negligence,  and,  therefore,  are  to 
be  imputed  to  the  voluntary  agency  of  man.  That  God  wishes  the 
spiritual  weal  of  the  race  is  outside  of  all  cavil.  What  we  must 
always  reckon  with  is  man's  cooperation  or  want  of  cooperation. 
It  is  a  leading  and  established  truth  in  ethics  that  though  God's  pur- 
pose, or  rather  will,  in  the  question  here  submitted  is  genuine,  real, 
sincere,  yet  it  is  not  absolute;  it  is  conditioned.  God,  by  the  very 
nature  of  things,  wills  man  to  be  saved,  only  provided  he  surrenders 
to  the  divine  assistance,  which  theologians  call  grace,  and  provided, 
that  is,  that  he  makes  use  of  the  helps  proffered,  and  thus  perseveres 
in  rectitude.  This  is  the  correct  statement  of  the  nature  of  the 
"  Salvific  "  will  of  God.    Of  course,  there  are : 

I.  Objections.  God  is  the  cause  of  moral  evil.  Te  this  statement 
we  make  answer  by  asking.  In  what  way  is  He  the  cause?  Is  He 
directly  or  indirectly  the  cause?  If  we  are  told  that  He  is  directly 
the  cause  of  sin,  then  God,  who  is  substantial  and  infinite  perfection, 
acts  contrary  to  His  nature,  which  supposition  is  absurd,  because  it 

71 


72  APOLOGETICA. 

involves  a  contradiction,  and  blasphemous,  because  it  pushes  irrever- 
ence against  the  divine  attributes  to  the  pitch  of  impious  abuse.  Sin 
proceeds  directly  from  the  will  of  the  sinner.  That  God  gave  man 
his  free  will  does  not  make  human  transgressions  imputable  to  the 
Divinity.  Did  moral  evil  spring  from  a  blind  instinct,  then  we  would 
be  compelled  in  reason  to  hold  the  author  of  that  irresistible  inclina- 
tion responsible  for  it.  Surely  we  are  not  willing  to  go  to  the  length  of 
demanding  that  the  Creator  should  not  have  endowed  His  highest 
handiwork  with  a  power  as  fruitful  in  good  as  in  wrong  doing.  If  I 
am  deprived  of  my  will  in  its  native  integrity,  then  perforce  must  I 
lose  my  reason.  Without  reason  and  free  will,  what  would  I  be? 
A  mere  animal — an  automaton.  Praised  be  our  Maker,  who  loved  us 
more  wisely  and  better  than  that !  God  wishes  the  existence  of  the 
will,  but  moral  evil  proceeds  therefrom,  not  necessarily,  but  from  the 
deHberate  misuse  of  freedom.  Evil  acts  happen  independently  of 
God's  will.    They  are  not,  can  not  be  intended  by  God.    But, 

II.  God  does  not  prevent  sin.  This  involves  the  previous  objection. 
It  is  identical.  It  is  framed  differently.  It  is  not  repugnant  to  the 
divine  attributes  that,  in  this  way,  in  the  way  we  have  just  explained, 
there  be  actions  which  are  wrong.  God's  purpose  in  bestowing 
freedom  of  action  upon  man  is  of  the  highest  and  in  thorough  har- 
mony with  His  ineffable  perfections.  That  purpose  was  eternal  happi- 
ness for  man  and  glory  for  Himself.  Man  free,  and  only  as  free,  has 
it  within  his  power  to  practise  virtue,  to  keep  in  the  strait  path, 
to  exercise  heroic  deeds,  to  master  himself,  to  Hve  the  only  life 
worth  living,  to  go  through  this  existence  unspotted,  and  thereby 
glorify  his  Creator  and  enjoy  consummate  bliss.  Furthermore,  even 
out  of  sin  may  glory  ascend  to  God.  God  by  pardoning  sin  manifests 
the  glory  of  His  mercy ;  by  punishing  sin,  manifests  the  glory  of  His 
justice ;  by  forbidding  sin,  manifests  the  splendor  of  His  sanctity. 


XXXII.— (Bob  lEyerciece  IRo  provibence  ®ver 

Introduction. — The  Church  of  Christ  has  made  many  enemies  for 
itself.  They  are  of  such  a  stripe  that  their  hostility  is  an  honor 
rather  than  a  reproach.  We  love  Mother  Church  for  the  enemies 
she  has  made.  She  brings  to  men  doctrines  which  by  their  very 
nature  call  for  the  exercise  of  duty  under  circumstances  which  do 
not  pamper,  but  are  repugnant  to  human  nature.  The  entire  round 
of  Christian  obligations  is  summed  up  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul: 
"  For  the  grace  of  God  our  Saviour  hath  appeared  to  all  men, 
instructing  us  that,  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly  desires,  we 
should  live  soberly,  and  justly,  and  piously"  (Titus  ii.  ii,  12). 
Adhesion  to  the  faith  demands  submission  both  of  mind  and  will. 
This  surrender  implies  so  much  self-repression  that  man  revolts,  and 
his  rebellion  is  not  against  himself,  but  against  his  divinely  appointed 
teacher.  Hence  fault-finding.  Hence  accusations  and  calumnies  and 
attacks  against  doctrine.  Hence  every  truth  promulgated  finds  an 
opponent.  Infidelity  has  its  birth  not  in  the  highest,  but  in  the  lowest 
levels  of  man's  being.  Divine  providence  in  one  way  or  another  is 
perhaps  the  chief  target  of  our  adversaries. 

I.  God  does  exercise  a  providence  over  men  in  all  things  and  over 
spiritual  concerns  in  a  special  manner.  Providence  is  inseparable 
from  Deity.  Yet  we  are  asked  how  is  it  that  if  the  Church  be  the  one 
teacher  of  mankind,  how  is  it  that  its  voice  has  not  been  heard  by  all  ? 
How  is  it  so  many  have  never  known  the  Church,  in  fact,  could 

73 


74  APOLOGETICA. 

never  have  known  the  Church?  This  question  states  an  incontro- 
vertible fact.  Yet  the  fact  does  not  militate  against  providence,  nor 
against  any  of  its  attributes.  It  would  undoubtedly  be  an  unanswer- 
able objection  were  men  so  circumstanced  in  the  impossibility  of  sav- 
ing their  souls.  But  they  are  not.  There  is  no  damnation  where 
there  is  no  fault,  and  there  is  no  fault  where  the  liberty  and  the 
power  of  acting  do  not  exist.  The  individuals  referred  to  had  no 
chance  of  having  the  Gospel  preached  to  them.  Their  paganism 
may  not  be  voluntary,  and  hence  the  sin  of  ignorance  of  God  and 
of  idolatry  could  not  be  imputed  to  them.  They  will  not  be  lost  for 
not  having  heard  the  Gospel.  So  the  Church  condemned  the  proposi- 
tion of  Bains,  who  asserted  that  "  negative  infidelity  in  those  to  whom 
Christ  has  not  been  preached  is  a  sin.''  Who  the  more  liberal,  the 
Church  or  the  heretic?  We  must  pause  here  to  praise  the  Church, 
which  has  never  ceased  to  protect  the  rights  of  reason  and  humanity. 

II.  We  are  forced  to  conclude  that  God  must  have  in  all  times 
and  places  delivered  to  all  men  the  means  to  escape  perdition.  At  all 
times,  we  say,  and  in  all  places,  and  to  all  men  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world.  This  we  know  in  general.  How  the  means  of  salva- 
tion were  afforded  in  all  cases  we  do  not  pretend  to  know.  Suffice 
it  for  us  to  have  the  certainty  that  the  Lord  has  looked  after  the 
eternal  interests  of  man  since  the  beginning,  and  that  every  man  has 
been  judged  by  his  lights,  and  rewarded  or  punished  accordingly. 
God  has  promulgated  two  laws — one  written,  the  other  unwritten, 
or,  better,  the  other  pencilled  on  the  heart  of  every  man.  This  latter 
is  known  to  every  rational  being.  It  is  called  the  natural  law.  It  is 
the  reflection  of  the  divine  law  in  the  mind  of  man.  It  is  immutable. 
Its  general  precepts  or  dictates  are  known  to  each  individual,  and  in 
this  respect  no  man  can  plead  invincible  ignorance.    There  has  been 


NO  PROVIDENCE  OVER  WORLD,  75 

no  member  of  the  human  family,  and  there  never  will  be  one,  into 
whose  intelligence  some  shining  of  this  law  has  not  entered.  Accord- 
ing to  this  law  and  according  to  the  measure  of  their  knowledge  of 
this  law  will  the  men  be  judged  to  whom  Christ  has  never  been 
preached.  With  this  explanation  even  the  simplest  may  understand 
that  God's  providence  is  as  ubiquitous  as  His  presence. 


XXXIII.— (5o&  Us  *mnsoacltou0  Jfor  Soula. 

Introduction. — The  Catholic  Church,  as  the  accredited  teacher  in 
matters  of  faith  and  morals,  besides  being  thoroughly  equipped  for 
her  mission,  possesses  all  the  qualifications  and  is  endowed  with  all 
the  characteristics  which  are  essential  to  such  teachership.  Like  the 
truth  which  she  delivers  and  protects,  her  pronouncements  are  clear, 
unhesitating  and  consistent.  Consistency  is  her  jewel.  She  shrinks 
from  no  legitimate  consequence  of  her  averments.  She  stands  by  all 
logical  inferences  deducible  from  her  dogmas.  This  is  noticeable 
always,  and  not  least  in  the  matter  before  us.  Advocating  the  exist- 
ence of  a  God,  of  whom  we  affirm  a  benign  and  impartial  providence, 
we  assert  that  to  every  man  God  furnishes  a  chance  of  salvation. 
Including  within  the  zone  of  that  providence  even  those  to  whom  the 
God  of  the  Christians  has  never  been  preached,  we  are  immediately 
and  almost  triumphantly  met  by  the  objection  :  "  But  according  to  the 
Church  there  is  no  salvation  without  Baptism,  a  sacrament  which 
most  assuredly  is  out  of  the  question  with  regard  to  peoples  who  have 
never  heard  of  Christ  or  his  Church."  They  consider  this  a  dilemma 
on  one  or  other  horn  of  which  the  propounder  of  Catholic  doctrine 
must  find  himself  impaled.  Let  us  listen  to  the  explanation  of  the 
Church. 

I.  Baptism  is  necessary  for  salvation.  When  we  say  that  Baptism 
•s  necessary,  we  mean  that  it  is  an  indispensable  means  to  salvation. 
In  other  words,  without  Baptism  no  one  can  be  saved.  This  is  cer- 
tainly making  our  statement  as  strong  as  possible.    However,  this 

76 


GOD  IS  UNSOLICITOUS  FOR  SOULS.  77 

necessity  is  not  so  absolute  as  not  to  suffer  some  exception,  not  in  the 
matter  of  the  effects  produced  by  the  sacrament — these  are  always 
rigorously  exacted — but  in  the  matter  of  the  rite  or  administration  of 
Baptism.  In  other  words,  there  arc  more  ways  than  one  of  receiving 
this  sacrament.  In  adults,  i.  e.,  in  those  who  have  reached  the  years 
of  reason,  the  effects  of  Baptism  may  be  supplied  by  an  act  of  con- 
trition made  perfect  by  charity.  This  act  includes  the  desire  for  the 
sacrament,  and  this  desire  will  supply  for  the  absence  of  the  rite. 
There  is  a  baptism  of  water,  of  fire,  of  blood.  The  first  is  Baptism 
as  it  is  ordinarily  administered.  The  second  is  the  fruit  of  perfect 
contrition  coupled  with  the  desire  or  purpose  to  receive  the  sacrament. 
The  third  is  martyrdom,  or  the  dying  for  the  faith  of  it  (Acts  i.  5, 
Mark  x.  39). 

II.  This  teaching  of  the  Church  with  regard  to  the  Baptism  of 
desire  is  not  an  innovation,  nor  is  it  a  loophole.  It  is  based  on  the 
authority  of  Scripture,  and  is  corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  the 
fathers.  Says  St.  Augustine :  "  This  baptism  is  as  of  much  avail 
for  the  remission  of  sin  as  if  the  individual  had  been  washed  in  the 
waters  of  fontal  baptism."  How  does  this  meet  the  difficulty  relative 
to  those  who  are  beyond  the  knowledge  of  Baptism  and  its  necessity  ? 
Simply  because  it  shows  us  a  way  opened  by  Providence  which 
all  men  may  follow  to  salvation.  God  works  in  wondrous  ways  and 
the  acts  of  His  love  can  not  be  numbered  by  the  sands  of  the  sea.  To 
all  outside  of  Christendom  He  gives  light,  more  or  less,  but  always 
sufficiently  abundant,  to  see  the  path  of  rectitude.  Every  man  knows 
the  general  principle  of  morality,  which  is  that  good  must  be  done, 
evil  must  be  avoided.  Adhesion  to  this  principle,  no  matter  how 
many  or  how  heinous  mistakes  are  made,  renders  the  man  upright 
in  intent,  which  is  the  only  thing  God  considers.    This  uprightness 


78  APOLOGETtCA. 

must  have  its  reward.  If  Sacramental  Baptism  can  not  be  secured, 
then  providence  in  God's  own  mysterious  way  will  come  to  the  rescue. 
St.  Thomas  says  that  God  will  deny  nothing  to  the  man  who  does 
all  he  can.  This  is  only  reasonable.  If  there  is  no  other  way  out  of 
it,  He  will  provide  even  to  the  limit  of  miracle.  The  Spirit  of  God 
worketh  incessantly,  and  what  is  to  hinder  the  human  soul  from 
being  touched  to  love  and  contrition  and  the  desire  for  the  regenerat- 
ing laver?  No  one  knows  how  many  may  be  lost  who  were  held  in 
loving  arms  over  the  baptismal  font.  Neither  does  any  one  know 
how  many  are  saved  whose  infancy  was  passed  in  barbarism  and 
who  waxed  into  manhood  and  old  age  amid  the  excesses  of  the 
wildest  savagery. . 


XXXIV.— (Bob  110  mot  Solicitous  for  Souls. 

Introduction. — The  consistency  with  which  truth  is  always  garbed 
is  evidenced  in  every  doctrine  of  the  Church  from  its  widest  general- 
ization down  to  its  most  particular  application.  It  is  this  consistency 
which  is  a  distinguishable  element  in  the  beautiful  harmony  which 
is  so  characteristic  of  all  Catholic  teaching.  Mistress  of  the  whole 
domain  of  moral  and  dogmatic  facts,  she  is  unafraid  of  any  of  the 
consequences  of  her  utterances.  Along  with  this  established  preroga- 
tive is  seen  the  benignity  of  her  universal  sway.  Noble,  all  her  man- 
dates are  elevating.  Infallible,  all  her  tenets  are  permanent,  immu- 
table ;  she  changes  with  none  of  the  vicissitudes  of  the  race.  Tender, 
she  is  domineered  in  the  exercise  of  her  queenship  by  the  divine 
spirit  of  charity.  There  is  nothing  cruel  in  any  of  her  manifestations. 
A  benefactress,  the  whole  world  is  better  for  her  advent.  It  may  be 
sometimes  the  case  that  we  are  unable  to  fathom  everything  within 
the  deposit  of  faith.  Mystery,  however,  detracts  not  necessarily 
from  verity.  It  does  not  follow  that  because  we  do  not  understand 
we  must  repudiate.  This  is  especially  true  relatively  to  the  subject 
of  infants  who  die  without  Baptism.  Yet  we  must  avow  that  even 
here  God's  goodness  must  in  some  way  be  patent. 

I.  The  necessity  of  Baptism  is  as  rigorous  for  children  as  it  is  for 
adults.  Yea,  it  is  more  rigorous.  All  who  have  attained  the  use  of 
reason  while  in  the  impossibility  of  reaching  eternal  bliss  without  the 
sacrament,  may,  if  not  baptized  in  reality,  be  regenerated  by  martyr- 
dom or  by  desire.  This  latter  is  an  impossibility  for  babes — born  or 
unborn.    The  status  of  the  Holy  Innocents  falls  outside  of  our  present 

79 


8o  APOLOGETICA. 

scope.  Must  we,  then,  conclude  that  the  gates  of  heaven  will  never 
open  for  children  who  die  without  Baptism  ?  This  is  the  only  deduc- 
tion admissible.  Does  God  wish  their  salvation  with  divine  earnest- 
ness and  sincerity  ?  There  is  only  one  answer.  Yes ;  God  does  wish 
their  eternal  welfare,  and  He  wishes  it  earnestly  and  sincerely.  Sup- 
pose there  is  no  explanation  possible ;  then  "  ours  not  to  make  reply, 
ours  not  to  reason  why,"  ours  only  to  bow  down  in  submission  to 
the  overwhelming  majesty  of  infinite  truth.  Still  let  us  consider  first 
that,  had  the  human  race  persevered  in  the  primal  justice  with  which 
it  was  adorned  at  its  creation,  this  contingency  would  not  have 
occurred.  Hence  the  present  sad  condition  of  man  has  not  been 
brought  about  by  the  Creator,  but  by  the  creature.  The  trans- 
gression introduced  a  new  state  of  things,  and  all  its  consequences 
are  primarily  to  be  attributed  to  man.  We  know  that  many  untimely 
deaths  happen  through  the  fault  of  parents — the  fault  of  negligence 
— ^the  fault  of  crime. 

II.  Yet  this  view  does  not  compensate  the  babe  for  its  unutter- 
able loss.  We  find  ourselves  confronted  by  what  can  only  be  con- 
sidered as  an  irreparable  calamity.  Let  us  put  the  matter  at  its  worst. 
Beings  irresponsible  are  punished?  Beings  to  whom  all  voluntary 
action  is  an  impossibility  are  subjected  to  the  same  negative  penalty 
as  men  who  transgress  in  the  fulness  of  light  and  liberty,  and  all  be- 
cause, without  any  fault  of  theirs,  they  have  not  had  poured  upon 
them  the  saving  laver !  Again  an  affirmative  reply  is  the  only  one  we 
can  make.  Could  not  God  interfere  ?  Undoubtedly  it  is  in  His  power 
to  do  so.  Why  does  He  not  ?  Who  can  say  ?  He  alone  knows,  and 
because  He  knows  we  have  the  assurance  that  somewhere  or  other 
in  the  harmonies  of  the  Infinite  there  is  compensation.  God  is  just 
beyond  conception,  and  God  is  good  beyond  any  effort  of  ours  to  con- 


GOD  IS  NOT  SOLICITOUS  FOR  SOULS.  8i 

ceive  or  express.  Somewhere  and  somehow  in  the  eternities  His 
justice  and  His  mercy  will  kiss.  We  have  admitted,  and  it  is  all 
Catholic  teaching  requires  us  to  admit — we  have  admitted,  in  the 
question  here  submitted,  only  a  negative  effect  of  the  lack  of  Baptism ; 
we  have  admitted  only  their  exclusion  from  the  face  to  face  vision  of 
their  Maker.  They  are  unconditioned  for  heaven.  They  do  not  be- 
long there.  Have  we  not  customs  and  regulations  somewhat  similar  ? 
Do  we  allow  every  one  that  reaches  our  shores  to  disembark  ?  Do  we 
permit  unconditional  citizenship?  What  makes  a  citizen?  Certain 
terms  to  be  fulfilled  and  then  the  lifting  of  the  applicant's  hand  as  he 
makes  his  bow  of  allegiance,  and,  lo!  all  the  privileges  and  protec- 
tion of  the  national  banner  are  bestowed  upon  him.  Should  we 
wonder  in  a  spirit  of  scepticism  that  God  is  in  His  way  exclusive, 
exacts  conditions,  and  to  the  sacramental  sprinkling  of  a  little  water 
vouchsafes  the  right  to  the  unending  bliss  of  His  kingdom  ?  Because 
we  do  not  understand,  let  us  not  reject.  I  know  that  He  is  just,  and, 
therefore,  no  wrong  is  done  the  helpless  child.  I  know  that  He  is 
good,  and  that  in  some  way  and  somewhere  in  His  vast  spaces  His 
hand  is  caressing  tenderly  the  little  children  outside  His  realm. 


XXXV.— (5o&'0  provibencc  Strctcbee  mot  ®ut 

©ver  Soul6. 

Introduction. — Possibly  there  is  no  decision  of  the  Church  which 
grates  more  harshly  on  the  sensibilities  of  men  than  that  which 
affirms  that  unbaptized  children  can  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
But  feeling  is  the  poorest  guide  which  reason  can  follow.  In  fact, 
it  is  but  a  blind  guide,  or  worse,  no  guide  at  all.  What  we  are  most 
concerned  with  is  truth.  It  would  be  very  easy  for  the  Church  to 
win  the  applause  of  the  world.  However,  she  is  not  "  playing  to  the 
galleries."  She  is  the  inspired  teacher.  She  has  but  one  mission, 
and  that  is  to  preach  the  word  of  God,  baptizing  all  men  in  the  name 
of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  "  Amen,  amen, 
I  say  to  thee,  unless  a  man  be  born  again  of  water  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  he  can  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  God  "  (John  iii.  5).  This  is 
the  word  of  God,  and  the  Church  must  promulgate  and  defend  it. 
Still  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the  opponents  of  Catholic  doctrine 
are  the  only  ones  to  whom  the  difficulties  of  this  question  are  apparent. 
Nor  must  they  think  that  they  alone  are  moved  by  the  awfulness  of 
the  verdict.  Since  the  beginning  the  fathers  and  doctors  have  been 
exercised,  and  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  put  on  record  some  of  their 
views. 

I.  Opinions  vary,  St.  Augustine,  adhering  to  Scripture,  goes  to 
the  length  of  asserting  that  these  children  are  in  the  same  dungeon 
house  as  the  reprobate.  He  was  influenced  by  the  absolute  pro- 
nouncement of  Christ  and  the  terrible  nature  of  original  sin  and  its 
consequences.     He  seems  to  be  alone  in  his  attitude.     Calvinists, 

82 


PROVIDENCE  NOT  OVER  SOULS,  83 

urged  by  what  motives  or  principles  I  know  not,  assure  the  salvation 
of  the  unbaptized  children  of  the  predestined.  Cajetan  holds  that 
the  children  of  faithful  parents  are  saved  by  the  prayers  of  their 
progenitors.  This  was  very  nearly  condemned  at  the  Council  of 
Trent.  We  are  admonished  by  theologians  that  it  is  an  unsafe  view. 
Bonaventure  believes  that  such  children  will  owe  their  salvation  to 
the  piety  of  those  who  brought  them  into  the  world.  One  theologian 
asserts  that  there  is  given  to  these  unbaptized  ones  a  lucid  interval 
during  which  they  are  baptized  with  the  baptism  of  desire.  Others 
again  suppose  that  there  is  some  unknown  way  opened  to  these 
unfortunates.  We  have  advanced  the  above  to  make  it  evident  how 
the  hearts  of  many  of  the  teachers  in  the  Church  have  been  stirred 
in  order  to  bring  not  alleviation  to  the  departed,  but  comfort  to 
those  who  are  left  behind. 

II.  These  opinions  have  not  been  condemned  by  the  Church. 
They  have  not  been  approved  either.  If  they  afford  consolation,  so 
much  the  better.  They  all  imply  sound  doctrine.  They  all  admit 
that  without  Baptism  it  is  impossible  to  be  saved.  They  all  aim  at 
finding  some  way  or  other  by  which  the  effects  of  Baptism  may  be 
caused  in  the  absence  of  the  sacrament.  They  are  mindful  of  original 
sin  and  its  consequences,  which  are  removable  only  by  Baptism  of 
some  kind.  This  sin,  in  which  all  are  born,  is  not  a  positive  act.  It  is, 
rather,  a  condition.  By  it  the  soul  is  in  a  state  of  privation.  The 
situation  is  a  negative  one.  There  are  no  rights  to  any  of  the  rewards 
promised  to  those  who  have  been  freed  from  this  taint.  We  are 
aware  that  in  the  beginning  our  first  parents  enjoyed  prerogatives 
which  were  not  essential  to  their  nature  and  which  they  were  to 
transmit  to  their  descendants.  Their  disobedience  stripped  them  of 
all  these  extraordinary  privileges — stripped  them  and  all  posterity. 


84  ^APOLOGETICA. 

Among  the  gifts  was  the  right  to  and  a  certain  fitness  for  life  eternal. 
What  they  had  not  they  could  not  give.  Their  descendants  come 
into  existence  in  this  denuded  condition,  and  so,  until  all  impediments 
are  removed  by  Baptism,  they  possess  neither  the  right  to  nor  the 
fitness  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Herein  is  the  root  of  the  difficulty. 
There  is  original  sin.  Every  one  is  born  with  it.  Baptism  alone 
effaces  it.  Children  dying  unbaptized  die  in  their  original  sin,  and 
so  the  gates  of  heaven  are  barred  against  them.  The  question  will 
still  arise:  Why  all  this?  Our  impotency  to  find  a  reply  does  not 
militate  against  the  truth ;  it  simply  is  one  of  the  constantly  multi- 
plying proofs  that  our  minds  are  small,  very  small,  islands  in  an 
ocean  of  limitations. 


XXXVI— (5o&'6  iprovibencc  Doea  IRot  protect 

Qovxle. 

Introduction. — Among  the  many  adversaries  who  oppose  against 
the  existence  and  perfections  of  God  the  objection  drawn  from  the 
case  of  infants  who  die  without  being  baptized,  probably  the  hardest 
to  be  convinced  of  their  error  are  those  who,  for  want  of  a  better 
name,  we  may  call  sentimentalists.  Sentimentalism  is  a  perversion 
and  a  monstrosity.  They  extinguish  the  light  of  reason  and  they  sin 
against  sound  sense  and  the  most  elementary  laws  of  logic.  Sen- 
timentalism is  mawkish — nay,  more,  repulsive.  It  is  not  true  pathos. 
It  is  not  genuine  feeling.  It  is  sensibility  running  wild,  and  it 
swarms  with  the  germs  of  disease  and  corruption.  It  is  artificial, 
and,  therefore,  begets  lies.  It  contradicts  all  perspective.  Truth 
in  its  eyes  becomes  distorted,  and  loses  all  its  significance  and  sub- 
stantiality. It  is  chiefly  manifest  in  the  difficulties  which  it  pro- 
poses against  the  fundamental  teaching  of  Christianity.  It  is  most 
clamorous  in  opposition  to  the  justice  of  God,  inasmuch  as  that  jus- 
tice abides  by  the  reparative  or  punitive  sanction  of  divine  law. 
It  seems  to  imply  in  all  its  utterance  this  one  calumny,  that  the 
Church  of  God  holds  more  for  justice  than  for  mercy,  and  that 
it  is  inexorable  in  its  attitude  of  unforgiveness.  It  was  not  a  Catholic 
who  wrote  in  his  hymns  the  following  description  of  the  heaven  of 
Christianity : 

"  In  heaven  above,  among  the  blest, 
What  mortal  tongue  can  tell, 
The  joys  of  saints  when  looking  down 
On  damned  souls  in  hell  ?  " 

—Watts. 
This  is  not  the  ideal  Catholic  paradise. 

85 


86  APOLOGETICA. 

I.  The  mind  of  the  Church  and  the  heart  of  the  same  universal  and 
tender  mother  are  revealed  in  the  serious  investigations  of  her  saints 
and  scholars.  Relative  to  the  fate  of  the  unbaptized  infants,  we  have 
the  assertion  that  it  is  better  for  them  to  have  been  than  not  to  have 
been.  This,  of  course,  can  hardly  be  affirmed  of  those  who  are 
eternally  doomed.  These  children  possess  natural  knowledge  of 
God  and  a  natural  love  for  Him  and  a  natural  joy  in  Him.  They 
are  by  their  very  condition  precluded  from  all  supernatural  knowl- 
edge, joy,  and  love.  St.  Thomas  proclaims  that  they  have  no  sorrow, 
but,  rather,  will  be  sharers,  according  to  their  nature,  in  many  gifts 
of  the  divine  goodness  and  perfections.  "  Although,"  he  continues, 
"  they  are  not  united  with  Him  in  glory,  they  are  not  entirely  sepa- 
rated from  Him.  Nay,  they  are  in  union  with  Him  by  participating  in 
His  bounty  and  by  the  joy  that  comes  from  such  knowledge  and 
love  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  their  nature  to  attain."  There  are 
floods  of  consolation  in  this  view.  They  can  not  be  insensible  to  the 
wonderful  privilege  that  is  theirs  in  having  left  the  world  one 
"  white  personal  integrity,"  and  are  out  of  the  danger  of  being  con- 
signed to  the  rigors  of  everlasting  punishment.  The  man  raised  by 
baptism  to  a  supernatural  status  could  not  be  happy  in  their  cir- 
cumstances, because  he  would  have  missed  the  end  of  his  elevation. 
This  lack  will  bring  no  pain  to  the  infant  unregenerated,  because 
the  heart  desires  only  what  the  mind  knows,  and  they  remain  in 
blissful  ignorance  of  the  higher  purpose  of  God  in  creating. 

n.  This  benign  view  of  the  situation  is,  of  course,  entirely  a  per- 
sonal one.  It  is  worth  only  the  reasons  which  are  brought  forward 
in  its  support.  It  has  affixed  to  it  neither  the  approbation  nor  the 
condemnation  of  the  Church.  It  is  valuable  because,  while  it  shows 
that  the  ill-fated  children  are  not  entirely  lost,  while  it  proves  that 


GOD'S  PROVIDENCE  DOES  NOT  PROTECT  SOULS.    87 

Catholic  doctrine  is  as  cognizant  of  God's  mercy  as  of  His  justice, 
it  also  establishes  the  wonderful  freedom  Catholics  enjoy  in  all  the 
zones  of  intellectual  activity  outside  the  area  inclosed  within  the 
luminous  pillars  of  dogma  or  revealed  truth.  Dogmas  are  safe 
guides.  The  mind  which  works  under  their  radiance  operates 
toward  truth  always.  It  is  security  for  us  to  know  that  without 
baptism  no  one  enters  the  kingdom  which  is  coming.  If  we  under- 
stand, let  us  rejoice;  if  we  are  confronted  by  mystery,  let  us  adore. 
This  subject  may  well  be  closed  with  the  remark  of  Bellarmine: 
"  Our  pity  for  these  children  avails  them  nothing,  our  severity  hurts 
them  not.  But  it  would  be  much  to  our  own  injury  if,  on  account 
of  unprofitable  mercy  toward  them,  we  were  to  defend  with  ob- 
stinacy any  teaching  opposed  to  the  Church  or  to  the  Scripture.  So 
let  no  mere  human  sympathy  be  our  guide,  but  let  us  in  all  things 
be  conformed  to  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
Fathers." 


xxxviL— ^bere  He  no  Ibereaften 

Introduction. — It  is  impossible  to  fix  a  point  beyond  which  im- 
piety will  not  go.  It  is  a  school  of  negation.  "  To  deny  is  easy ; 
nothing  is  sooner  learned  or  more  generally  practised.  As  matters 
go,  we  need  no  man  of  polish  to  teach  it,  but,  rather,  a  hundred  men 
of  wisdom  to  show  us  its  limits  and  teach  us  its  reverse."  This  is 
true  to-day,  as  true  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Carlyle.  It  is  a  ruinous 
vice.  It  essays  to  pull  down ;  it  never  builds  up.  It  has  attacked 
all  the  cherished  ideals  of  humanity,  and  has  never  substituted  any- 
thing for  them.  It  has  contradicted  everything;  it  has  neither 
proved  nor  disproved  anything.  What  does  it  give  us  in  place  of 
God,  in  place  of  religion,  in  place  of  immortality,  in  place  of  eternity  ? 
It  has  strewn  the  shores  of  the  ages  with  wrecks  of  all  splendid 
things.  It  has  made  of  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  blackened  ruins. 
It  has  driven  the  soul  of  man  into  exile  here,  it  has  forced  that  soul 
to  herd  with  lower  natures  in  the  present,  and  pictures  its  future 
as  an  eternal  and  unconscious  blank.  Matter  is  the  only  thing  which 
exists. 

I.  Materialism  does  not  approve  itself  to  any  sound  mind.  Long 
ago  this  teaching  was  condemned  by  the  voice  of  Wisdom :  "All  men 
are  vain  in  whom  there  is  not  the  knowledge  of  God;  who  have 
imagined  either  fire  or  the  circle  of  the  stars  or  the  great  water  or 
the  sun  and  moon  to  be  the  gods  that  rule  the  world ;  with  whose 
beauty  being  delighted  they  took  them  to  be  gods  "  (Wis.  xiii.  1-3). 
It  is  our  privilege  to  ask  these  philosophists  for  their  proof.    If  they 

88 


THERE  IS  NO  HEREAFTER.  89 

are  not  secure  in  their  position,  if  they  put  forth  only  a  baseless 
theory,  how  arrogant  and  reckless  and  audacious  must  they  be  to 
attack  the  truths  that  are  nearest  and  dearest  to  the  mind  and  heart 
of  man!  Triflers,  they  should  be  treated  only  with  the  silence  of 
contempt.  It  is  consoling  to  know  that  from  the  very  beginning 
until  the  present  time,  all  their  so-called  arguments  are  reducible 
to  mere  reiteration  of  their  views.  They  have  only  changed  their 
phraseology  to  suit  the  accidental  modifications  of  language  brought 
about  by  the  advance  of  the  positive  sciences.  We  can  not  oppose 
the  progress  of  human  investigation.  We  can  not,  nor  would  we. 
We  feel,  however,  that  incredulity  and  impiety  have  impeded  the 
advancement  of  genuine  knowledge  in  the  regions  of  higher  thought. 
"  In  the  beginning,"  says  St.  Thomas,  "  the  ancient  philosophers, 
looking  at  the  universe  with  gross  and  carnal  eyes,  saw  nothing  but 
what  fell  under  the  senses."  It  was  only  by  slow  stages  that  they 
reached  any  knowledge  of  the  truth.  The  materialists  of  to-day  have 
gone  backward.  They  have  returned  to  the  infancy  of  thought. 
They  teach  substantially  what  was  taught  before  Anaxagoras  and 
Aristotle.  They  are  as  much  in  the  dark  concerning  the  origin  and 
the  essence  of  things  as  was  Lucretius  and  his  adherents.  The  world 
is  as  much  a  puzzle  to  them  to-day  as  it  was  to  the  early  thinkers  who, 
hke  them,  denied  the  existence  of  a  living  and  personal  Deity  anterior 
and  superior  to  the  creation  of  things. 

II.  What  is  materialism?  Doctrinally,  it  holds  that  everything 
which  exists  in  the  universe,  from  the  inanimate  rock  to  man, 
originated  from  primordial,  non-intelligent,  lifeless  matter.  They 
predicate  of  this  matter  that  it  and  it  alone  is  eternal.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  everlasting  spirit,  conscience,  virtue,  or  God.  Say 
what  they  will,  protest  as  they  may,  this,  no  matter  how  the  colors 


90  APOLOGETICA, 

or  the  shadings  of  their  view  may  change,  is  their  fundamental 
axiom.  As  mentioned,  this  theory  is  not  a  production  of  modern 
times.  It  is  as  old  as  thought.  We  might  excuse  it  when  the  world 
was  young.  What  must  we  say  of  it  after  the  lapse  of  so  many 
centuries?  We  are  inclined  to  ask,  Do  they  really  assert  this  rank 
materialism  ?  Here  are  some  of  their  own  expressions :  "  Matter 
is  the  sole  principle  of  all  that  exists"  (Buchner).  "The  affinity 
of  matter  is  the  omnipotence  which  creates  all  things  "  (Moleschott). 
"  Matter  is  absolute.  It  is  without  end  and  without  beginning. 
It  is  unconditioned,  independent,  and  absolute"  (Loewenthal). 
What  are  we  ?  Creatures  of  matter,  products  of  fire,  earth,  air,  and 
water.  What  are  we?  Bubbles  on  this  great  ocean  of  matter 
floating  in  sun  or  shadow,  disappearing  in  the  vast  bosom  of  that 
lifeless  sea  to  make  way  for  other  air  bells.  Away,  therefore,  with 
all  conscience,  with  all  virtue,  with  all  noble  living!  Let  us  dance 
our  short  bubble  life  in  the  sunshine,  let  us  color  brief  existence  with 
all  the  rainbow  hues.  Let  us  eat  and  drink  and  be  merry,  for  to- 
morrow we  die  and  are  not  known,  nor  know  ourselves  forever. 
Eat  and  drink  we  may,  but  with  such  a  fate  hanging  over  us,  to  be 
merry  is  simply  to  be  intoxicated ;  is  simply  not  to  think ;  is  simply 
to  forget.    This  is  all  materialism  holds  out  for  us. 


xxxviiL— zcbere  Is  IHo  fbeveattcv. 

Introduction. — Not  seldom  the  statement  of  a  doctrine  proves 
sufficient  for  either  its  victory  or  its  overthrow.  The  more  clearly 
materialism  is  presented,  the  more  swiftly  is  it  doomed  to  repudi- 
ation. As  it  stands  to-day,  it  is  abhorrent  to  every  instinct  and  every 
yearning  of  human  nature.  It  brings  comfort  to  nobody.  Even 
were  it  true,  it  would  seem  kindness  to  man  to  withhold  it  from 
his  knowledge.  It  is  untrue,  and  yet  its  propagation  is  so  harmful 
that,  wherever  it  is  adopted,  ruin  of  every  description  follows  in 
its  wake.  It  undermines  personal  integrity,  loosens  domesticities, 
and,  as  history  attests,  it  threatens  the  downfall  of  authority  in  the 
state,  as  well  as  rebellion,  revolution,  and  anarchy.  It  is  the  parent 
of  the  crimes  which  are  committed  in  the  name  of  liberty,  as  it 
understands  liberty,  that  is,  in  the  name  of  unbridled  license.  When 
the  system  flourishes,  it  flourishes  not  because  it  appeals  to  man's 
reason  or  to  what  is  noble  in  him,  but  because  it  flatters  either  am- 
bition or  sensuality. 

I.  Materialism,  of  course,  by  its  very  nature,  eliminates  God. 
Its  first  cry  is  atheistic.  Its  last  clamor  is  blasphemous.  Perhaps 
the  best  way  to  meet  the  materialist  is  by  denial.  We  can  not  but 
admit  that  all  the  forms  of  corporeal  existence  spring  from  a  ma- 
terial source.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  deny  that  this  is  true  even  of 
living  things — of  the  plant,  of  the  mere  animal.  Thus  much  has 
generally  been  accepted  by  Catholic  science  just  as  it  was  positively 
declared  by  Plato  and  Aristotle.  Here  we  might  pause  to  interject 
the  remark  that  Catholic  doctors  have  not  invented  a  logic  or  a 

91 


92  APOLOGETICA. 

metaphysics  to  suit  the  teachings  of  the  Church.  They  have  only 
applied  the  principles  of  right  reasoning  and  abstraction,  which  were 
established  by  the  light  of  pure  intelligence,  by  the  investigations 
of  the  nature  and  the  essences  of  things  as  carried  on  by  such  minds 
as  Aristotle  and  Plato.  These  principles  were  maintained  three 
hundred  years  before  Christ — three  hundred  years  before  the  re- 
demption of  mankind  was  achieved,  and  all  the  dogmas  involved 
in  that  redemption  were  uttered  by  lips  divine  for  the  emancipation 
of  humanity. 

II.  We  have  defined  the  lengths  to  which  we  are  compelled  to  go 
with  materialists.  Our  position  is  that  out  of  matter  only  matter 
can  come,  and  that  out  of  life  alone  can  the  living  thing  proceed. 
These  two  claims  we  are  not  unwilHng  to  concede.  The  life,  how- 
ever, which  we  are  free  to  grant,  is  the  life  we  discover  in  plants 
and  in  animals — ^plant  life,  animal  life.  The  life  we  find  in  man, 
especially  his  rational  life  and  his  liberty  of  action,  human  life, 
transcends  all  the  resources,  all  the  potentiality  of  matter.  Matter 
can  not  produce  a  human  thought,  an  act  of  human  will,  a  human 
word,  a  spiritual  soul.  Matter  may  become  the  tenant  of  spirit, 
but  spirit  can  not  owe  its  origin  to  matter.  Develop  matter  and 
refine  it  to  the  utmost,  reduce  it  to  the  atom,  confine  it  to  a  line  or 
a  point,  put  it  into  whatever  alembic  filled  with  the  most  powerful 
agents  and  reagents,  ^submit  it  to  all  the  material  forces  of  the  uni- 
verse, it  will  never  emerge  anything  but  a  material  entity,  and 
the  chasm  between  it  and  spirit  no  finite  power  can  bridge.  This 
is  only  a  statement,  but  it  implies  an  argument  which  has  never 
been  answered  by  the  materialist,  and  which  is  always  a  voice  say- 
ing to  him,  Thus  far,  and  no  farther.  This  thesis  of  ours  is  provable. 
Moreover,  it  does  not  bristle,  like  its  contradictory,  with  difficulties 


THERE  IS  NO  HEREAFTER.  93 

insuperable.  They  deify  matter,  but  their  god  from  first  to  last  has 
only  material  characteristics.  They  style  him  infinite;  he  is 
limited;  he  is  a  congeries  of  limits;  he  is  a  mass  of  atoms.  They 
call  matter  indestructible.  The  most  they  can  prove,  perhaps,  is 
that  up  to  the  present  the  mass  of  matter  has  undiminished  since 
it  came  into  existence.  If  by  indestructibility  they  mean  that  it 
will  not  be  destroyed,  I  neither  affirm  nor  deny.  But  we  must  deny 
their  allegation  if  they  hold  that  it  can  not  be  destroyed.  A  superior 
power  can  destroy  it.  If  they  say  He  will  not,  our  position  is  neutral. 
If  they  say  it  is  beyond  His  power,  then  we  part  company,  for 
there  is  One  who  said  of  the  human  body,  to  dust  it  shall  return, 
who  can  lay  waste  the  mountains  and  the  hills  and  the  cities  and  all 
the  pride  thereof,  who  can  put  out  the  sun  and  the  stars  and  re- 
duce all  His  creation  to  the  nothingness  whence  it  sprang. 


XXXIX.— ;rbere  Is  IWo  Ibereafter. 

Introduction. — Materialism  is  the  grossest  conception  of  the 
essences  of  things  as  well  as  the  most  imperfect  and  inadequate 
theory  ever  advanced  for  the  explanation  of  the  universe.  In  fact, 
in  matter,  as  in  everything  created,  we  have  the  same  unceasing  cry, 
"  Know  ye  that  the  Lord,  he  is  God :  he  made  us  and  not  we  our- 
selves "  (Ps.  xcix.  3).  We  find  some  qualities  in  matter,  but  in 
none  of  them,  for  example,  is  the  power  of  moving  itself,  for  motion 
is  something  outside  of  the  body  and  its  extension.  In  fact,  the 
insufficiency  of  matter  is  a  characteristic  everywhere  emphasized  by 
men  of  science.  Says  de  Maistre :  "  Everywhere  what  moves  pre- 
cedes that  which  is  moved.  Matter  is  nothing  but  a  proof  of  spirit." 
Hence,  when  materialists  insist  upon  matter  as  being  eternally 
in  motion,  they  emit  an  opinion  not  only  gratuitous,  but  contra- 
dictory and  absurd.  This  is  the  verdict  of  Newton  in  his  century 
and  of  Virchow  in  ours.  If  motion  can  not  be  explained  by  matter 
alone,  the  difficulty  becomes  greater  when  there  is  question  of  the 
composition  of  organized  bodies,  and  the  order  and  regulated  energy 
which  they  display.  Fortuitousness,  hazard,  chance,  none  of  these 
things  afford  an  elucidation.  How  long  would  it  take  for  all  the 
letters  that  spell  the  words  that  constitute  the  Bible  or  the  Iliad, 
how  long  would  it  take  them  unassisted  by  an  intelligence  to  fall  into 
the  places  and  the  lines  which  they  now  occupy  in  these  two  great 
productions  ? 

I.  Materialists  deny  that  the  human  soul  is  immortal.  What  has 
reason  to  say  on  this  momentous  subject?    Will  man's  soul  survive 

94 


THERE  IS  NO  HEREAFTER,  95 

its  separation  from  the  body?  What  is  man?  He  is  a  rational 
animal.  His  body  will  go  the  way  of  all  material  things,  but  the 
elements  will  not  absorb  his  whole  vitality.  He  is  a  conscious  being. 
He  has  a  perception  and  an  understanding  of  himself,  and  he  dis- 
tinguishes himself  from  everything  that  is  not  he.  He  determines 
himself  freely  to  act  or  not  to  act,  and  he  can  steer  himself  even 
against  his  strongest  inclinations.  He  is  an  individual.  He  has  a 
personality.  He  lives  his  own  life.  He  has  a  domain  whither  no 
one  can  penetrate — the  sanctuary  of  his  thoughts  and  aspirations. 
There  is  in  him  a  faculty  which  is  above  matter,  above  all  the  forces 
of  matter — a  faculty  which  can  control  and  deify  matter.  He  has 
two  natures,  a  corporeal  and  a  spiritual  nature;  he  has  two  lives, 
a  corporeal  and  a  spiritual  life.  Those  two  lives  conspire  and  make 
one  person,  and  the  principle  which  communicates  vitality  to  his 
lower  nature,  and  which  is  his  higher  nature,  is  his  soul. 

II.  This  soul  has  in  its  essence  nothing  in  common  with  matter. 
It  has  powers  above  the  compass  of  matter.  In  fact,  its  powers  rise 
so  high  beyond  the  circuit  of  matter  that  we  have  to  apply  to  it  a 
term  which  excludes  everything  that  is  matter.  We  call  it  imma- 
terial. It  is  the  negation  of  matter.  How  do  we  know  it  has  these 
properties?  How  do  we  distinguish  it  from  matter?  We  do  not 
see  the  soul.  It  is  as  viewless  as  the  air,  but  it  is  just  as  palpable 
by  the  signs  it  manifests.  I  know  its  nature  as  I  know  the  nature 
of  other  entities.  I  know  its  nature  by  its  operations.  Our  Cate- 
chism— that  sublime  and  yet  simple  compendium  of  all  theology — 
our  Catechism  speaks  of  three  operations.  They  are  the  will,  the 
memory,  and  the  understanding.  Can  matter  will  or  remember  or 
understand?  Take  all  the  qualities  of  mere  matter,  change,  com- 
bine, refine  them  as  you  will,  what  will  the  outcome  be?     Simply 


96  APOLOGETICA. 

a  something  characterized  by  extension,  inertia,  weight ;  a  something 
cognizable  by  the  senses;  a  something  from  which  it  is  impossible 
to  evolve  a  thought;  a  something  in  which  an  abstraction  can  find 
no  place ;  a  something  dull  and  senseless,  which  can  not  look  back- 
ward to  the  past  nor  forward  to  the  future;  a  something  which, 
even  if  animated,  hardly  realizes  the  present;  a  something  which 
can  not  reply  or  resist  when  forced  by  agents  outside  of  itself.  It 
is  not  so  with  thought  or  with  memory  or  will.  They  are  endowed 
with  properties  of  a  different  order.  They  are  not  weighed  down 
or  confined.  Matter  is  no  barrier  to  them.  Neither  is  space.  No 
scalpel  can  divide  a  thought.  No  forceps  can  seize  it.  No  power 
can  imprison  it.  It  can  compass  the  ends  of  creation,  the  limits  of 
the  universe,  it  can  traverse  the  interstellar  spaces  and  fathom 
the  ocean  caves.  This  is  thought  as  we  may  inspect  it  in  our- 
selves or  study  it  as  communicated  to  us  by  others.  No  one  can 
fail  to  see  how  vast  is  the  diflference  between  matter  as  we  know 
it  and  thought  as  we  know  it.  From  the  thought  we  go  to  the 
vital  principle,  to  the  source,  and  we  reach  the  soul ;  that  is  to  say,  a 
substance,  not  material,  but  gifted  with  all  that  accentuates  thought. 
This  soul,  say  materialists,  is  matter.  This  soul,  all  Christianity 
and  all  Paganism  exclaim,  this  soul  is  immortal,  i.  e.,  it  can  not  die. 


XL,—Zhcvc  1l6  mo  Ibereafter^ 

Introduction. — To  make  the  above  declaration  is  to  assert  that 
when  death  comes  to  a  man  it  annihilates  him ;  when  dust  returns  to 
dust,  in'  that  dust  will  be  found  the  atoms  of  the  triturated  soul.  It 
means  that  wherever  we  go  to  look  for  the  one  that  is  dead  our 
search  is  bounded  by  the  visible  horizons  of  the  universe.  There  is 
no  God,  no  heaven,  no  hell.  The  outlook  is  one  of  despair  and  gloom. 
Against  this  teaching  there  is  rebellion  in  every  man.  That  rebellion 
is  nothing  but  the  spiritual  soul  proclaiming  its  immortality.  "  I  do 
not  all  die  "  was  the  faith  wrung  from  the  heart  of  a  pagan.  Christ 
called  His  Father  the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob. 
This  was  long  after  those  patriarchs  had  been  gathered  to  their  fore- 
bears. He  then  added  the  inevitable  conclusion :  "  He  is  not  the  God 
of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living  "  (Luke  xx.  38).  There  is  not  a  single 
consideration  of  man's  nature  by  which  we  are  not  led  to  affirm  that 
the  sQut  will  go  on  existing  after  the  disintegration  of  the  body.  It 
follows  from  the  nature  of  the  soul,  from  the  characteristics  of  each 
operation  of  the  soul. 

I.  Yes;  reason  approves  the  conclusion  that  man's  soul  is 
immortal.  There  is  the  physical  condition  of  the  soul.  It  is  simple. 
It  is  not  made  up  of  parts.  Death  is  corruption,  but  this  break- 
ing up  into  components  can  be  alleged  only  of  what  is  com- 
pound. This  is  evidenced  by  the  acts  of  the  soul.  Apprehension  is 
simple,  and  likewise  judgment,  as  well  as  ratiocination  and  the  ex- 
pression of  a  wish  or  a  desire.    Take  the  power  of  reflection,  whereby 

97 


98  APOLOGETICA. 

the  mind  views  its  own  thoughts.  There  is  no  such  flexibility  in 
mere  matter,  nor  in  any  of  the  forces  springing  from  matter.  Nay, 
more,  the  soul  is  independent  of  matter.  It  does  not  depend  on  any- 
thing corporal  for  its  existence  or  its  operations.  It  is  immaterial. 
It  is  a  spirit  joined  to  and  vitalizing  matter.  This  spirituality  is 
made  manifest  by  the  soul's  acts.  They  are  all  spiritual.  They  are 
all  independent  of  matter.  Matter  can  never  beget  the  spiritual. 
They  belong  to  two  different  worlds  and  demand  different  origins. 
As  easy  would  it  be  to  generate  light  out  of  absolute  darkness  as  to 
produce  spirit  out  of  matter. 

II.  Take,  moreover,  into  consideration  the  ideas  of  which  the 
mind  is  the  cause;  consider  how  in  themselves  these  ideas 
transcend  all  matter,  and  how  they  rise  beyond  all  powers 
of  mere  bodies  to  produce  them.  They  have  the  fine  aspirations 
which  surpass  any  suggestion  of  matter.  What  kinship  is  there  be- 
tween sensible  objects  and  virtue,  and  right  and  wrong,  and  heroism 
and  self-sacrifice,  and  patriotism  and  what  we  call  moral  courage,  and 
so  many  other  concepts  that  originate  in  the  intelligence  of  man? 
When  a  man  is  conceived  and  born,  a  material  agency  may  explain 
the  origin  of  his  body.  But  what  of  his  soul?  What,  who  is  its 
producer  ?  Does  it  spring  from  matter  ?  It  can,  not.  Is  it  an  efflu- 
ence of  some  spiritual  entity  ?  Again  we  have  to  say.  No.  It  can  not 
spring  into  being  of  itself.  No  spiritual  emanation  can  account  for 
it.  Spiritual  beings  are  one  and  indivisible,  and  therefore  suffer  no 
partition.  There  remains  only  the  solution  that  it  is  summoned  into 
being  from  nothing,  by  a  creative  act  which  God  alone  can  perform. 
So  each  individual  soul  is  a  distinct  creation  of  God.  Away  with 
materialism  or  any  other  *'  ism  "  which  proclaims  a  lower  origin  for 
the  human  soul!     This  is  all  advanced  by  way  of  a  prelude  to  a 


THERE  IS  NO  HEREAFTER.  99 

closer  investigation  of  the  destiny  of  man's  soul.  In  all  that  is  ad- 
vanced there  are  latent  cogent  reasons  why  the  mortality  of  the  soul 
is  inadmissible.  The  very  nature  of  man  is  a  demonstration  of  his 
immortality.  We  may  adduce  the  proof  derivable  from  the  uni- 
versality of  man's  belief  that  his  spirit  will  not  die.  The  race  has 
always  professed  that  there  is  an  everlasting  life,  and  has  professed 
it  with  the  same  unanimity  with  which  it  has  asserted  the  existence 
of  God.  This  is  attested  by  Cicero,  whose  words  contain  an  argu- 
ment :  "  If  universal  consent  is  the  voice  of  nature,  and  if  all  men 
in  all  times  and  all  countries  unite  in  admitting  that  everything  does 
not  end  with  death,  we  find  ourselves  compelled  to  acquiesce  in  their 
belief"  (Quaest.  Tusc.  i.  15). 


XLi.—Zhcvc  1l0  mo  Ibereaften 

Introduction. — Why  do  men  refuse  assent  to  the  noble  and  con- 
soling doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality?  Is  it  in  the  interests  of 
truth?  Is  their  ultimatum  in  this  matter  extorted  by  conviction? 
Have  they  any  solid  foundation  whereon  to  base  their  assumption? 
They  certainly  have  not  advanced  the  cause  of  truth.  They  certainly 
have  not  expanded  the  area  of  knowledge.  They  have  driven  their 
votaries  back  to  the  very  beginning  of  investigation  and  have  suc- 
ceeded in  so  obscuring  the  most  elementary  data  and  principles  as  to 
bewilder  ordinary  minds.  Their  efforts  in  behalf  of  education  and 
civilization  have  been  bootless.  There  can  be  only  one  effect  of  their 
propaganda.  Their  doctrine  gives  free  rein  to  the  individual,  disrupts 
the  family,  and  undermines  the  state.  According  to  them  nothing  is 
real  save  what  comes  under  the  senses,  and  sensual  pleasure  is  the 
supreme  end  of  existence. 

I.  In  spite  of  all  their  slavering,  the  weight  of  reason  is  on  the 
side  of  the  teaching  that  the  soul  of  man  is  immortal. 

In  the  impossibility  of  verifying  by  reason  alone  this  great 
truth,  the  arguments  advanced  in  its  behalf  go  much  more  nearly 
proving  it  than  their  allegations  go  toward  sustaining  the  opposite. 
In  other  words,  we  are  impelled  by  many  motives  to  give 
credence  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  whereas  not  a  single 
argument  worthy  of  consideration  is  found  to  confirm  the  contention 
of  materialists.  If  we  inspect  closely  the  nature  of  the  human  soul, 
it  seems  patent  that  it  can  exist  and  act  without  the  body.     The 

TOO 


THERE  IS  NO  HEREAFTER.  loi 

principle  of  life  is  essential  to  the  body.  The  reverse  does  not  hold. 
The  soul  is  in  itself  incorruptible.  This  we  conclude  from  those 
thoughts,  those  concepts,  those  discursive  powers,  those  wishes,  those 
desires,  those  operations  of  man  which  have  no  relation  what- 
ever to  the  body,  which  are  higher  than  any  possible  suggestion 
of  the  senses,  which  so  often  imply  a  contempt  for  what  is  carnal  and 
for  death,  that  enemy  which  haunts  sensualists  like  a  spectre.  It 
is  from  these  considerations  we  derive  the  absence  of  all  composition 
in  the  soul,  the  absence  of  all  parts — a  condition  which  emancipates 
it  from  corruption.  Can  anything  be  more  living  than  life?  Can 
anything  be  more  antagonistic  to  death  than  that  which,  alive  itself, 
makes  everything  in  man  to  live? 

II.  Is  the  desire  of  total  extinction  natural  to  man?  Is 
there  not  a  recoil  of  his  whole  being  from  such  a  fate?  It  is  a 
vain  inquiry  to  ask  how  the  soul  will  live  after  death.  What 
manner  of  life  will  it  lead?  It  will  follow  the  lines  of  its  own 
activity.  It  will  be  within  its  power  still  to  will,  still  to  remember, 
still  to  understand,  and  the  acts  of  those  mental  agencies  will  be  bliss- 
ful or  wretched  according  as  the  soul  has  conditioned  herself  during 
the  days  of  her  exile.  Over  and  above  this  instinctive  repugnance  to 
cessation  of  the  totality  of  individual  existence,  which  is  as  universal 
as  time  and  space  and  the  race,  which  is  congenital,  and  which,  as 
we  have  every  reason  to  assume,  is  a  gift  to  nature  from  nature's 
God,  a  gift  which  He  must,  for  the  having  given  it,  ripen  into  frui- 
tion, over  and  above  this  is  the  omnipresent,  irresistible  desire  for  per- 
fect happiness.  This  is  found  in  the  heart  of  every  man.  It  comes  from 
God.  Has  he  planted  it  in  every  breast  simply  as  a  hunger  that  will 
never  be  satisfied?  Is  God  crucifying  humanity  on  the  cross  of  a 
yearning  never  to  be  sated?    No  one  will  say  anything  but  nay  to 


I02  APOLOGETICA, 

such  a  question.  Every  one  will  answer,  He  has  given  the  longing 
for  flawless  felicity  and,  therefore,  is  He  bound,  at  least  by  the  per- 
fections of  His  own  divine  nature,  to  make  it  possible  for  every  man 
to  reach  that  blessing.  Man  can  not  be  happy  in  completeness  here. 
This  must  come  to  him  in  some  other  world.  Even  in  that  other 
world  it  is  not  realizable  save  in  the  possession  of  eternal  life. 
Eternal  life  is  immortality,  and  hence  the  significance  of  the  ques- 
tion of  Christ,  "  For  what  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world,  and  suffer  the  loss  of  his  soul?  "  (Mark  viii.  36). 


XLU.—Zhevc  He  mo  Ibereafter. 

Introduction. — There  is  a  law  made  manifest,  in  some  or  other 
way,  to  every  individual  conscience.  Its  legislator  is  God.  His 
right  to  make  it  is  deducible  from  His  creative  act.  That  He  exercises 
this  right  follows  from  the  perfections  of  His  being.  We  call  it  the 
law  of  nature.  Of  its  existence  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt. 
God  not  only  knows  what  is  intrinsically  good  or  evil,  but  He  must 
love  the  one  and  hold  in  hatred  the  other.  Nay,  more,  He  must  will 
the  one  and  condemn  the  other.  As  man  has  been  created  free,  God 
can  not  compel  his  actions,  but  it  must  be  His  purpose  that  man  do 
good  and  avoid  evil.  This  implies  legislation,  law.  As  a  perfect 
ruler  He  must  prohibit  what  is  against  and  command  what  makes 
for  order  in  His  dominion.  A  law  which  by  its  very  nature  is  so 
essential  for  man  must  be  promulgated,  that  is,  man  must  know  it. 
That  so  it  is,  is  revealed  by  conscience. 

I.  This  law  implies  another  existence  besides  that  of  the  present. 
Hence  we  infer  the  survival  of  the  soul  after  death.  Every  law 
must  have  a  sanction.  Every  law  must  have  attached  to  it  a 
reward  or  a  punishment.  The  establishing  a  sanction  is  a  func- 
tion implied  in  legislative  action.  The  sanction  must  be  one 
which  approves  itself  to  reason  as  sufficient  for  its  purpose.  Sup- 
pose that  God  affixed  no  sanction  to  His  law.  In  this  case 
the  inference  would  naturally  be  that  God  was  indifferent  as  to 
whether  His  law  was  observed  or  not.  In  other  words,  contempt 
for  His  dictates  would  be  of  as  little  concern  to  Him  as  observance. 

103 


I04  APOLOGETICA, 

What,  then,  becomes  of  the  sanctity  of  God?  How  could  we  call 
Him  thrice  holy?  How  could  He  punish  infractions?  What  obli- 
gating force  would  His  laws  have?  What  a  useless  thing  the  law 
would  be!  These  conclusions  militate  against  the  most  elementary 
conception  of  the  Deity  and  can  not  be  entertained.  A  sanction, 
therefore,  must  there  be.  Nor  will  any  kind  of  a  sanction  be  satis- 
factory. It  must  be  adequate.  If  not  adequate — if  by  its  qualities 
it  be  insufficient  to  deter  from  wrong  doing  or  to  incite  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  law,  then  it  is  nothing  worth,  it  is  not  a  sanction.  Is  the 
sanction  as  it  can  be  enforced  in  this  life  possessed  of  these  condi- 
tions ? 

II.  We  must  admit  that  there  are  rewards  and  punish- 
ments here  below.  We  know  that  virtue  begets  true  peace  and 
genuine  joy  of  heart.  It  avails  much  to  helpful  conditions  not  only 
of  mind,  but  of  body.  It  conciliates  the  majority  of  civilized  men. 
It  secures  the  esteem  and  affection  of  our  fellows  in  many  instances, 
and  it  redounds  to  the  prosperity  and  general  welfare  of  communi- 
ties. We  are  aware  that  vice  is  attended  with  many  evil  conse- 
quences. Yet  does  all  this  constitute  a  competent  sanction?  We 
think  not.  A  sanction  worthy  of  the  name  should  be  in  proportion 
to  the  degrees  of  virtue  or  of  vice.  It  should  outweigh  whatever 
disadvantages  follow  from  the  observance  of  the  law,  as  well  as  any 
emolument  gained  by  its  violation.  This  does  not  appear  to  be  the 
case  in  any  sanction  that  can  be  presented  in  this  existence,  as  we 
know  it.  Virtue  has  many  rewards,  but  it  does  not  always  com- 
pensate for  the  trials  and  the  losses  sustained  in  practising  it.  Vice, 
too,  in  this  world  is  at  times  attended  by  many  and  great  evils.  But 
how  often  are  these  evils  nullified  by  success  and  prosperity  and 
enjoyment?     Take  the  case  of  a  man  to  whom  is  presented  this 


THERE  IS  NO  HEREAFTER,  105 

alternative,  "  Do  wrong  or  die."  If  he  breaks  the  law,  he  may  be 
tortured  by  remorse,  it  is  true,  but  he  retains  his  life,  a  blessing  which 
all  men  prefer  to  any  of  the  goods  of  earth.  If  he  keeps  the  law, 
what  reward  does  he  receive  here  for  his  heroism?  It  would  seem, 
then,  that  the  sanction  furnished  here  is  incomplete.  Therefore,  there 
must  be  a  somewhere  else  in  which,  when  the  body  dies,  the  soul  lives. 
This  conclusion  is  demanded  we  think,  by  God's  sanctity  and  justice. 


XLiii.— ^berc  IF0  mo  Ibereafter. 

Introduction. — There  is  nothing  so  wearying  and,  which  is  the 
same  thing,  so  wearing  as  the  confrontment  of  objections  in  the  mat- 
ter of  reHgion.  It  is  simply  a  brushing  away  of  the  same  obnoxious 
insects.  Their  buzzing  is  monotonous.  It  is  the  same  insistence  of 
the  same  unreasonable  protesting.  The  opposition  of  incredulity 
to-day  is  identical  with  that  of  yesterday.  If  there  be  change  at  all, 
it  is  a  change  of  phrase  merely.  We  venture  to  say  that  against  the 
principal  tenets  of  Christianity  there  has  been  offered  no  new  counter 
argument,  let  us  say,  since  the  days  of  Simon  Magus.  That  these 
arguments  have  been  answered  goes  without  saying.  They  were 
riddled  by  Tertullian,  by  St.  Augustine,  by  St.  Thomas,  by  Suarez. 
Still  they  incessantly  appear.  This  is  true  not  only  of  the  existence 
of  the  Deity,  but  as  well  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  difficul- 
ties raised  in  every  age  have  a  familiar  appearance.  What  is  more, 
we  may  safely  affirm  that  all  these  demurrers  are  reducible  in  every 
case  to  a  negation.  The  watchword  is.  Deny  !  Deny !  Deny !  The 
importance  of  the  dogma  of  the  incorruptibility  of  the  soul  is  of  equal 
degree  with  the  dogma  of  God's  existence.  Hence,  with  regard  to 
the  soul  we  must  assert  that  its  survival  after  the  death  of  the  body 
is  eminently  consonant  with  reason. 

I.  Immortality  belongs  to  a  being  by  its  very  essence;  ex- 
ample, God.  It  is  of  the  essence  of  God  that  He  be  and  live 
always.  Or  it  belongs  to  a  being  by  reason  of  the  nature  which 
God  has  given  it.     Or,   it  is  a  privilege  granted  to  an  entity, 

106 


THERE    IS   NO    HEREAFTER.  107 

as  IS  the  case  with  the  human  body,  which  will  rise  again  never 
to  die.  The  soul  of  man  falls  into  the  second  category.  So 
we  say  immortality  is  natural  to  the  human  soul.  In  other  words,  it 
is  of  the  very  nature  of  the  soul  to  live,  when  once  created,  forever. 
If  it  is  to  cease  to  live,  then  its  breaking  up  will  happen  through 
annihilation  only.  The  objection  is  that  it  may  be  annihilated.  The 
soul  can  not  destroy  itself.  Self  destruction  or  suicide  on  the  part 
of  the  soul  is  an  absolute  impossibility.  It  is  simple.  It  is  spiritual. 
Fancy  a  thought  annihilating  itself.  Yet  a  thought  is  only  an  acci- 
dent of  the  soul.  Fancy  the  will  or  the  intellect  reducing  itself  to 
nothingness.  They  are  only  faculties  of  the  soul.  If,  therefore,  the 
soul  is  to  sink  into  non-existence  it  must  be  by  the  action  of  another. 
God  alone  can  be  that  other. 

II.  God  zvill  not  annihilate  the  soul.  That  God  can  de- 
stroy the  soul  is  beyond  a  doubt.  Such  a  consummation  is  within 
the  reach  of  His  absolute  power.  But  God  has  other  attri- 
butes besides  omnipotence.  These  attributes  militate  against  the 
destruction  of  the  soul.  We  might  ask,  Is  it  in  accordance  with 
the  divine  wisdom  to  suppose  that  having  gifted  the  soul  with  an 
immortal  nature,  that  after  the  lapse  of  time,  He  is  going  to  contra- 
dict His  purpose  of  immortality  by  the  extinction  of  that  soul  ?  God 
endowing  the  soul  with  a  natural  immortality  expressed  His  will  with 
regard  to  that  soul.  Can  we  conceive  any  reason  why  He  should 
mutilate  its  destiny?  Scientists  affirm  that  matter  is  indestructible. 
Why  will  they  not  concede  the  indestructibility  of  the  soul?  How 
superior  spirit  is  in  all  its  functions  and  characteristics  to  matter! 
There  is  man's  reason,  a  faculty  of  his  soul.  When  we  consider  the 
flights  of  that  power  and  its  lofty  beckonings  to  the  will  and  aspira- 
tions and  desires  of  man,  are  we  at  liberty  to  think  that  God,  who  by 


io8  APOLOGETICA. 

His  special  creation  of  the  soul  gave  rise  to  those  yearnings,  is  going 
to  frustrate  them  all?  "  Every  intelligent  being,"  says  St.  Thomas, 
"naturally  desires  to  be  always."  But  no  natural  desire  will  be 
unsatisfied.  There  is  the  hope  of  perfect  happiness.  Will  God,  who 
inspired  that  hope,  defeat  it  ?  The  perpetual  duration  of  the  soul  is  a 
postulate  of  divine  sanctity  and  justice.  Would  God  be  holy?  Would 
He  be  just  were  He  to  fling  back  the  soul  into  the  abyss  of  extinc- 
tion ?    What  of  reward  ?    What  of  punishment  ? 

"  Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust : 
Thou  madest  man — he  knows  not  why. 
He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die; 
And  Thou  hast  made  him:  Thou  art  just." 


XLiv.— 3e0U0  Cbrl0t  Gnl^  a  flDam 

Introduction. — This  is  eminently  a  skeptical  age.  Men  call  it  a 
scientific  one.  Science  is  the  knowledge  of  things  in  their  causes. 
Infidelity  is  the  most  unscientific  of  all  persuasions.  It  advances  no 
proofs.  It  attacks  everything.  Its  touch  is  sacrilegious.  Socinus 
declared  Christ  was  a  man  only.  Renan  made  him  a  Frenchman. 
"  Nothing  is  so  gullible  as  an  unbeliever."  To  quote,  "  They  have 
gnawed  away  the  Old  Testament,  they  are  nibbling  away  the  New. 
They  believe  the  impudent  lies  and  monstrous  arithmetic  which 
babbles  about  a  million  years,  a  period  actually  beyond  the  compre- 
hension of  the  human  intellect."  How  many  lies  skepticism  has 
swallowed,  instead  of  assimilating  the  saving  truth !  So  Christ,  they 
say,  was  a  myth.  Against  this  affirmation  we  have  Christ's  own 
assertion  that  He  was  the  Messiah,  that  He  was  God. 

I.  Christ  was  the  Messiah.  The  Jews  expected  a  Messiah,  an 
anointed  one,  the  one  sent,  the  deliverer  of  the  Jewish  people  and  of 
the  world.  Some  expected  a  triumphant  King,  who  was  to  restore  to 
Israel  its  departed  earthly  glory.  These  misread  Scripture.  They  mis- 
understood the  prophecies.  In  His  dealing  with  the  Samaritan  woman, 
who  told  Him  that  she  knew  a  Messiah  was  to  come.  He  answered, 
"  I  am  he,  and  I  am  going  to  Jerusalem,  and  all  that  has  been  said  by 
the  prophets  will  be  fulfilled."  He  reviewed  at  another  time  all  the 
prophets,  commencing  with  Moses,  had  said  of  Him,  and  explained 
all  that  had  been  written  about  Him  in  the  holy  books.  He  declared 
His  dignity  as  Messiah  and  as  King  of  the  Jews  before  the  grand 

109 


no  APOLOGBTICA. 

tribunal  of  the  nation.  This  declaration  was  the  chief  accusation 
brought  against  Him  by  the  Jews  (John  xix.  12).  They  put  over 
His  cross,  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jews."  It  is  very  hard 
to  reduce  such  a  large  personality,  a  personality  foretold  by  the 
prophets,  a  personality  unafraid  to  proclaim  His  mission  and  His 
divine  descent,  a  personality  who  proved  in  every  way  that  the  Old 
Testament  spoke  of  Him,  it  is  very  hard  to  reduce  such  a  personality 
to  a  myth.  Is  there  an  individual  in  all  history,  modem  or  ancient, 
who  looms  so  largely  as  Christ?  That  He  was  the  Messiah  is  an 
established  fact.  All  the  indications  noted  by  the  prophets  as  to  the 
time  of  His  coming  point  to  Him  luminously.  He  appears  at  the 
moment  Israel  is  losing  her  political  autonomy,  a  short  time 
before  the  final  dissolution  of  the  Jewish  state,  at  the  expiration  of 
the  sixty-ninth  week  of  years.  He  appears  when  the  second  Temple 
has  been  built  by  Zorobabel  after  the  captivity.  He  graced  the 
Temple  by  His  presence  just  before  its  final  destruction.  The  priest- 
hood of  Aaron  was  still  dedicated  to  the  services  of  the  altar.  The 
precursor  was  preaching  penance  in  the  desert,  and  in  Israel  and  in 
the  whole  world  there  was  a  yearning  for  the  coming  of  a  deliverer. 
He  is  the  descendant  of  Abraham,  of  the  tribe  of  Juda,  of  the  family 
of  David ;  He  is  born  in  Bethlehem  of  a  Virgin ;  He  is  born  without 
splendor.  We  quote  these  facts  to  offset  the  affirmation  that  Christ 
was  not  the  Messiah  and  that  other  hysterical  pronouncement  that 
He  was  a  myth. 

II.  Christ  was  not  a  myth.  His  career  was  not  a  fanciful 
invention.  He  was  not  the  creation  of  imagination,  a  poetic  fic- 
tion. There  is  no  character  of  all  history  whose  existence  stands 
out  from  the  records  in  such  colossal  and  substantial  proportions. 
Let  a  man  proclaim  to-day  on  any  of  our  thoroughfares  that  he  is 


JESUS   CHRIST   ONLY   A    MAN.  m 

the  Messiah,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God,  that  he  is  God.  In  what  way 
will  he  be  received  ?  They  will  pass  him  by  with  scorn  and  laughter. 
They  will  insist  on  his  being  incarcerated.  Christ  was  not  received 
thus.  He  was  taken  seriously  by  his  followers  and  his  foes.  What 
has  been  the  purpose  of  all  unbelief?  It  has  used  all  its  efforts, 
intellectual  and  material,  to  oust  Him  from  His  historical  position. 
His  impress  is  upon  the  whole  world.  Men  of  mind  and  men  of 
station  are  His  adherents.  Would  it  be  in  the  power  of  a  phantom 
to  revolutionize  and  agitate  the  world  as  Christ  has  done?  If  the 
existence  of  Christ  is  a  mere  invention,  then  history  and  all  the 
notable  characters  that  live  in  its  pages  are  myths  and  nothing  more. 
Then  are  we  ourselves  and  all  our  environment  but  the  stuff  out  of 
which  dreams  are  made. 


XLV.— Cbriet  a  flDan  ®nl?. 

Introduction. — The  conflict  between  so-called  science  and  religion 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Church  has  reduced  itself  to  the  con- 
tention on  the  part  of  the  former  that  the  Bible  is  uninspired,  and 
that  Christ  is  not  God.  The  Catholic  Church  has  fought  her  side 
of  the  discussion  more  than  well.  In  every  battle,  when  the  smoke 
of  the  struggle  has  cleared,  it  is  always  discovered  that  the  Church 
is  firm  on  her  foundations  and  she  stands  in  all  her  beauty  with 
her  divine  charter  intact  and  her  lips  still  proclaiming  that  her  mis- 
sion is  from  heaven  and  that  God  is  God  and  Christ  is  His  Son,  and 
that  Christ  is  likewise  the  upholding  power,  who  centuries  ago  prom- 
ised, and  held  to  His  promise,  that  He  would  be  with  her  until  the 
consummation  of  time.  Christ  or  Diana  ?  was  the  interrogatory  put  to 
the  faithful  in  younger  days.  Christ  or  science  ?  is  the  dilemma  con- 
fronting every  man  coming  into  the  world  in  all  the  centuries,  and  as 
well  in  this  twentieth  era  of  civilization.  We  refer  to  the  Bible  as 
an  authentic  historic  document  to  evidence  the  fact,  a  fact  as  lucid 
as  any  fact  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  that  Christ  proved  to  the 
Jews  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubting  that  He  was  the  Messiah 
foretold  by  the  Scriptures.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Christ  appealed 
to  their  Scriptures.  Search  the  Scriptures,  He  said,  and  you  will 
find  that  I  am  the  one  so  emphatically  spoken  of  by  the  prophets. 
There  is  no  doubt  in  any  honest  mind  that  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees 
were  only  too  conscious  that  Christ,  the  Son  of  Mary,  was  the  one 
indicated  by  all  the  seers  from  the  promise  in  the  Garden  of  Eden 

112 


CHRIST   A    MAN    ONLY.  113 

down  to  the  days  of  Daniel.     Among  the  strongest  proofs  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ  is  His  own  affirmation : 

I.  Christ  is  God.  The  question  of  antiquity,  Jewish  and  Roman, 
was :  "  Art  thou  he  who  is  to  come,  or  look  we  for  another?  "  (Matt, 
xi.  3).  "  Go  and  relate,"  was  the  answer  of  Christ,  "  what  you  have 
heard  and  seen."  Christ  made  His  declaration  and  He  confirmed  it 
by  the  holy  and  thaumaturgical  life  which  He  led.  There  was  no 
need  of  looking  for  another.  The  plenitude  of  time  had  come,  and 
pagans  as  well  as  Jews  were  in  expectation.  He  was  predicted  and 
He  appeared.  The  desired  one  appeared.  St.  Peter  (Matt.  xvi.  16) 
said  in  answer  to  a  question  from  the  Master :  "  Thou  art  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God."  The  Master  approved  of  the  answer. 
He  reaffirmed  the  assertion.  He  was  His  own  great  deputy.  He 
declares  that  He  is  the  omnipotent  Master  of  creation,  and  of  man, 
and  of  heaven,  and  of  the  world  of  pure  spirits,  preexisting  before 
all  creatures,  the  light  and  the  life  of  the  world,  in  all  things  like 
unto  the  Father,  having  a  right  to  the  same  homage ;  He  declares  ac- 
compHshed  in  Himself  the  prophecy  of  Isaias  according  to  which  He 
was  to  come  to  save  the  people;  He  is  the  Legislator  and  King  of 
the  universe ;  He  forgives  sins,  He  brings  the  dead  back  to  life ;  He 
is  the  Judge  of  the  world. 

n.  We  ask,  could  any  one  utter  such  language  save  God?  Is  it 
possible  to  employ  stronger  or  more  sublime  expressions  to  affirm 
His  divine  individuality  to  the  world  ?  The  people  understood  Him. 
They  did  not  hear  Him  say  that  He  was  a  man  favored  by  heaven, 
or  a  messenger  from  God.  They  heard  Him  say,  and  they  com- 
prehended fully,  that  He  identified  Himself  with  God.  He  never 
faltered  in  His  proclamation  of  His  divinity.    When  He  knew  that 


114  APOLOGETICA, 

His  fate  was  sealed,  in  presence  of  Pilate,  who  asked  Him,  "  Art 
thou  the  King  of  the  Jews  ?  "  "I  am,  but  I  have  a  kingdom  that 
is  not  of  this  world.  You  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  power  of  God  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  " 
(Matt.  xxvi.  64).  Not  only  no  faltering  in  his  asseveration  of 
His  godhead,  but  an  emphatic  and  ever  increasing  impressiveness 
of  assertion.  Was  there  ever  such  an  assertion  ?  Is  there  a  single 
trace  of  fanaticism  therein?  We  find,  on  the  contrary,  good  sense, 
calm,  moderation,  clearness,  caution.  What  must  be  the  conclusion  ? 
Either  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  which  He  declared  Himself 
to  be,  at  the  adjuration  of  the  high  priest  on  the  day  of  His  death, 
or  He  is  not.    The  pathways  divide.    Whither  go  we? 


XLVi.— (tbriet  a  fll>an  Qnl^. 

Introduction. — There  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  importance  of  the 
dogma  of  the  divinity  of  Christ.  It  is  as  momentous  as  the  existence 
of  God  is.  In  fact,  all  the  Christian  tenets  hang  together.  Remove 
one  and  the  others  are  foundationless.  Deny  the  divinity  of  Christ 
and  you  deny  the  existence  of  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  the  whole  hereafter.  Repudiation  of  Christ's  godhead  means 
an  insult  to  the  Deity.  It  impugns  His  veracity  and  overthrows  all 
evidence.  Christ  was  one  who  came  credentialed  from  God.  His 
testimony  unto  Himself  was  backed  by  prophecy  and  miracle,  which 
are  the  only  voices  wherein,  as  far  as  we  know,  God  does  or  can 
speak  to  man.  The  spoken  declaration  whereby  Jesus  announced 
His  message  is  transcendentally  marvelous.  No  such  utterance  was 
ever  made  before  or  since.  It  is  impossible  to  mistake  the  meaning 
of  His  words.  There  is  nothing  hazy  about  them.  Nor  did  the 
leaders  among  the  Jews  make  any  mistake.  They  knew  and  under- 
stood what  He  said,  and  the  very  lucidness  of  His  terms  appalled 
them  and  stirred  up  their  lowest  natures,  whence  their  jealousy  and 
hatred.  No  violence  of  theirs  was  of  sufficient  force  to  make  Him 
yield  one  jot  or  tittle  of  His  claim.  It  is  no  wonder  that,  when 
viewed  from  all  sides,  His  announcement  of  His  divinity  grows  into 
an  irrefragable  argument  thereof. 

I.  It  is  undeniable,  and  herein  lies  the  strength  of  His  position, 
that  Christ  said  He  was  God  and  the  world  believed  Him.  Men,  in 
confirmation  of  what  they  allege,  resort  to  the  help  of  matter,  of 

"5 


ii6  APOLOGETICA, 

the  senses,  of  mind.  Christ  made  no  use  of  brute  force.  On  the 
contrary,  He  surrendered  to  it  His  whole  career.  He  was  no  conquer- 
ing hero.  He  came  to  sheathe  the  sword,  not  to  wield  it.  Babylon  and 
Rome  and  Mahomet  overran  the  world  by  the  strength  of  armed 
hosts.  Where  lie  their  empires  to-day  ?  "  Put  up  again  thy  sword 
into  its  place  "  (Matt.  xxvi.  52)  was  the  proclamation  of  Christ.  He 
fomented  no  revolution.  He  aroused  no  anarchy,  no  Socialism.  "  Give 
unto  Caesar  what  is  Caesar's  "  was  His  political  formula. 

H.  Christ  made  no  appeal  to  the  senses.  His  teaching  was  an  ir- 
reconcilable enmity  with  the  senses  and  the  passions.  He  forbade 
anger,  hatred,  revenge.  He  inculcated  charity,  purity,  poverty  of 
spirit.  Sensuality  was  not  written  on  His  standard.  Here  is  His 
device :  "  Whosoever  doth  not  carry  his  cross  and  come  after  me, 
can  not  be  my  disciple"  (Luke  xiv.  2y).  He  was  the  son  of  the 
carpenter,  and  the  army  He  led  to  revolutionize  the  world  consisted 
of  twelve  Galileans,  fishermen  and  a  publican.  His  word  emphasized 
a  mortification  of  the  senses.  His  rewards  were  in  eternity  and  He 
promised  persecution  and  martyrdom  to  His  followers. 

in.  What  were  His  intellectual  resources?  The  simplicity  of 
His  doctrine  removes  it  from  the  exclusion  and  loftiness  of  the 
schools.  Greece  reached  its  eminence  by  the  superior  excellence  of 
her  arts  and  her  sciences.  No  such  means  were  employed  by  Christ. 
There  was  no  effort  for  effect  in  all  his  speech.  When  He  addressed 
Himself  to  the  populace  the  sublimest  doctrine  fell  from  His  lips, 
and  yet  the  very  children  could  understand.  So  we  find  ourselves 
driven  to  exclaim  that  His  assertion  of  His  divinity  was  unsup- 
ported by  any  natural  help.  It  had  only  its  intrinsic  strength  to  con- 
firm it.     It  was  substantial  truth.     What  was  that  declaration  of 


CHRIST   A    MAN    ONLY.  117 

His?  The  speech  of  a  fanatic?  There  is  no  trace  of  fanaticism  in 
His  whole  life.  No  one  can  characterize  His  opinions  as  wild  or  ex- 
travagant. The  speech  of  a  fool  ?  What  is  there  in  all  His  demeanor 
that  savors  of  folly?  If  His  speech  be  not  that  of  a  fanatic  or  a 
fool,  what  is  it?  The  speech  of  one  speaking  the  truth.  There  is 
no  other  inference  left  us.  He  was  God  and  man  and  He  came  as 
God's  ambassador  as  man,  and  He  came  as  His  own  representative  as 
God.  His  word  was  the  speech  of  God.  That  word  in  the  be- 
ginning created  the  world,  and  in  the  fulness  of  time  that  word  was 
God.  There  is  only  one  equation  for  this  divine  declaration  of  His 
own  divinity.  We  find  it  in  John :  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word, 
and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God." 


XLVii.— Cbriet  wae  a  flDan 


Introduction. — Sacred  Scripture  serves  two  purposes.  It  is  not 
only  an  inspired,  it  is  also  a  historical  document.  In  its  inspiration 
it  is  the  basis  and  the  proof  of  all  the  dogmatic  teaching  of  the 
Church.  As  a  veracious  chronicle  of  the  past  it  occupies  indis- 
putably the  first  place  among  the  testimonials  to  the  truth  in  the  mat- 
ter of  God's  dealing  with  His  creation,  in  the  matter  of  Christ's  life 
and  mission,  and  in  the  matter  of  the  upbuilding  of  the  Church.  Any 
hypothesis  which  asserts  that  it  is  fraudulent  or  mythical  is  absurd. 
It  is  incontestably  proven  that  every  one  of  its  assertions  is  his- 
torically placed  beyond  the  reach  of  doubt.  "  If  we  were  as  exacting 
and  as  critical  in  regard  to  ancient  and  modem  works  as  we  are  in 
regard  to  the  New  Testament,  history  would  still  be  unwritten  for 
want  of  duly  authenticated  records ;  we  would  be  still  in  the  myth- 
ological age  "  (Lacordaire,  6th  conf.  on  Jesus  Christ).  It  is  in  this 
sense  that  we  refer  to  the  Bible  in  our  proofs  of  the  divinity  of  the 
Saviour. 

I.  It  is  indisputable  that  Christ,  who  has  been  adored  as  God 
for  so  many  centuries  by  followers  who  glory  in  bearing  His  name 
and  in  accepting  His  doctrine,  is  entitled  to  this  worship  because  He 
is  really  God.  We  have  already  appealed  to  His  own  declaration  con- 
cerning Himself.  He  proclaimed  Himself  God  equal  in  all  things 
to  His  Father.  He  claims  for  Himself  that  which  is  the  attribute 
of  God  alone:  John  xiv.  6;  John  viii.  12;  John  vi.  51 ;  John  vi.  55; 
John  xi.  25;  Mark  xiii.  27;  Matt.  xiii.  41 ;  John  vi.  21 ;  John  xv.  16; 

118 


CHRIST    WAS   A    MAN    ONLY.  119 

John  xiv.  13 ;  Matt.  xix.  29 ;  John  v.  19 ;  John  xiv.  23 ;  Matt.  xvi.  15. 
He  forgives  sins:  Luke  v.  21.  He  proclaims  Himself  eternal:  John 
viii.  58.  He  knows  all  things:  Matt.  xix.  4.  He  is  omnipotent:  John 
X.  18.  He  asserts  His  identity  with  the  Father:  John  x.  30.  We  ap- 
pend the  above  as  corroborative  of  what  has  already  been  stated. 

II.  Let  us  just  mention  the  proofs  of  the  divinity  of  Christ  as 
they  are  formulated  by  Rev.  W.  Devivier,  S.J.,  in  his  defense  of  the 
Catholic  faith.  These  arguments  expand  into  a  cumulative  con- 
firmation which  is  simply  irresistible.  There  are  the  miracles  per- 
formed. The  miracles  have  not  all  been  narrated,  for  St.  John  tells 
us :  "  But  there  are  also  many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,  which, 
if  they  were  written  every  one,  the  world  itself,  I  think,  would  not 
be  able  to  contain  the  books  that  should  be  written  "  (xxi.  25).  Yet 
how  numerous  these  wonders  are !  In  them  He  sways  all  nature  as 
He  pleases.  Investigate  the  cure  of  the  paralytic ;  Matt.  ix. ;  Luke  v. ; 
and  the  two  multiplications  of  the  loaves ;  Matt.  xiv.  and  xv. ;  and  the 
healing  of  the  man  born  blind ;  John  ix. ;  and  the  resurrections  from 
death:  Matt.  xi.  5.  To  this  we  must  add  the  consideration  that 
they  were  performed  publicly,  that  they  were  notorious,  that  these 
wonders  have  been  examined  by  friends  and  foes  for  nineteen  hun- 
dred years,  and  that  they  were  all  done  with  the  view  of  proving  that 
He  was  of  God  and  that  He  was  God ;  John  xi.  Then  we  have  the 
crowning  miracle  of  all,  that  is,  His  own  resurrection.  This  resur- 
rection He  predicted.  All  the  circumstances  connected  with  it,  in- 
stead of  detracting  from  its  veracity,  go  to  place  it  among  the  great 
and  unique  facts  of  history.  Rather  it  stands  alone.  There  is  no 
other  happening  in  the  past  like  it  or  so  duly  authenticated.  The 
mere  reading  of  it  in  the  pages  of  the  Evangelists  appeals  to  us 
with  an  eloquence  that  is  bewitchingly  irrefragable  in  its  evidence. 


I20  APOLOGETICA. 

No  fact  has  ever  been  so  thoroughly  attested.  It  is  the  strongest 
brief  in  the  possession  of  the  Church.  It  was  the  banner  miracle. 
It  revolutionized  and  converted  the  v^orld. 

III.  Other  proofs  of  the  divinity  of  Christ  are  found  in  the 
prophecies  and  their  literal  fulfilment.  They  point  unmistakably 
to  the  person  and  mission  of  Christ.  They  foretell  the  coming  and 
the  qualities  of  the  Messias,  His  birth  and  youth,  His  apostolic 
career,  His  Passion  and  death,  the  establishment  of  His  Church,  the 
sacrifice  of  the  New  Law.  He  directed  His  hearers  to  those  mani- 
fold predictions  of  His  advent :  "  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  you 
think  in  them  to  have  life  everlasting,  and  the  same  are  they  that 
give  testimony  of  me  "  (John  v.  39).  Pascal  calls  the  fulfilment  of 
the  prophecies  a  perpetual  miracle.  Hence  the  striking  conclusion 
of  Lacordaire :  "  Supported  by  all  that  is  most  illustrious  before  and 
after  Him,  His  personal  physiognomy  still  stands  out  from  this  sub- 
lime scene,  and  reveals  to  us  the  God  who  has  neither  model  nor 
equal." 


XLViii.— Cbriat  a  flDere  flDan  ®nl?. 

Introduction. — There  are  many  reasons  which  militate  against  the 
thesis  implied  in  the  above  assertion.  Foremost  among  them  is  the 
inexplicable  attitude  of  its  supporters.  We  ask  the  question :  "  Why- 
have  the  Gentiles  raged  and  the  people  devised  vain  things?  The 
kings  of  the  earth  stood  up  and  the  princes  met  together  against 
the  Lord  and  against  his  Christ."  Yes ;  we  ask  why  they  are  ani- 
mated with  such  fierce  hostility  against  God  and  His  Christ?  What 
is  there  in  the  conception  of  the  Deity  to  arouse  such  hatred  ?  Why 
do  they  seek  to  obliterate  the  idea  of  the  divinity  ?  Is  there  anything 
in  that  idea  that  is  subversive  of  the  moral  order?  Does  that  idea 
awaken  or  help  to  subdue  the  passions?  Is  there  anything  that  is 
good  or  lofty  in  the  thoughts  of  men  or  in  their  lives  which  it  an- 
tagonizes? We  wait  in  vain  for  one  reason  why  the  concept  should 
be  banished  from  the  intelligence  of  man.  In  fact,  everything  we 
know  about  man  and  his  propensities  should  make  us  hail — even 
were  the  concept  a  human  invention  or  fiction — it  as  an  emancipating 
agency.  The  same  is  true  of  Christ.  What  has  He  done  to  become 
the  target  of  so  much  hostility  and  abuse?  As  a  mere  man  He 
sparkles  like  a  "  jewel  on  the  outstretched  forefinger  of  all  time.*' 
Had  He  not  lived,  what  would  all  history  since  that  time  have  been  ? 
He  is  the  exponent  of  sublime  ideals.  His  teachings  have  reformed 
the  world.  Hence  a  mere  man.  He  should  be  niched  higher  than 
any  other  who  has  played  a  part  on  the  stage  of  the  world.  But  He 
is  not  mere  man. 

121 


"2  APOLOGETICA. 

I.  He  is  God.  We  adduce  as  proof  of  this  the  miracles  of  the 
apostles  and  disciples.  These  wonders  they  performed  in  virtue  of 
the  prom'se  and  omnipotence  of  Christ  (John  xiv.  12 ;  Mark  xvi.  17) . 
The  acts  of  the  apostles  recite  continual  and  stupendous  marvels 
operated  by  the  apostles  and  their  followers  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 
The  new  religion  had  to  be  confirmed,  and  nothing  is  so  corrobora- 
tive as  a  miracle.  Among  the  numerous  prodigies  after  the  ascension 
stand  out  conspicuously  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  con- 
version of  St.  Paul.  (See  Acts  ii.  and  ix.,  and  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians  i.  15.)  This  gift  of  miracles  has  endured  till  the  pres- 
ent time.  One  genuine  miracle  is  enough  to  prove  that  in  favor  of 
which  it  is  performed.  How  irresistible,  therefore,  to  any  honest 
thinker  must  be  the  cogency  of  centuries  of  miracles  ? 

II.  There  are  the  prophecies  made  by  Christ.  They  were  all 
verified.  He  foretold  His  Passion,  death,  and  resurrection  (Mark 
X. ;  Matt.  xvii.).  He  announced  the  coming  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
and  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  (Luke  xix.  and  xxi. ;  Matt.  xxiv. ; 
Mark  xiii.).  He  prepared,  by  prophecy,  all  His  followers  for  the 
days  of  persecution,  which  began  with  the  synagogue  and  ended 
with  the  Roman  emperors  (Acts  i.  8).  The  propagation  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  is  among  the  most  stupendous  occurrences  in  the 
annals  of  the  world.  No  natural  reasons  can  explain  it.  It  an- 
nounced itself  everywhere,  and  everywhere  was  it  received,  and 
among  all  classes  and  in  an  incredibly  short  time.  It  had  everything 
against  it.  It  had  secular  authority  and  secular  force ;  it  had  wealth 
and  learning.  It  had  the  opposition  of  every  element  that  went  to 
make  up  the  then  civilization.  On  its  side  there  was  nothing  except 
what  was  repugnant  to  the  world  spirit.  To  the  human  mind  it  pre- 
sented mystery,  to  the  human  passions  it  presented  restraint  and 


CHRIST  A   MERE   MAN    ONLY.  123 

penance,  and  yet  it  flooded  the  world  like  an  invading  sea.  It  had 
only  one  banner.  It  was  a  dead,  helpless,  bruised  figure  on  an  igno- 
minious cross.  Nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  was  in  its  favor,  every- 
thing, absolutely  everything,  was  against  it.  Impossible  to  con- 
jecture the  number  of  its  adherents.  We  know  that  ten  emperors 
fell  upon  the  new  religion  with  all  the  weight  of  their  authority  and 
cruelty,  and  that  during  that  period  a  million  died  gladly  for  their 
faith.  Add  to  this  that  we  have  the  testimony  of  two  thousand 
years  proclaiming  the  verification  of  the  utterances  of  Christ  con- 
cerning His  Church.  As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  so  shall  it  be 
until  the  end.  "  Why  have  the  Gentiles  raged  and  the  people  de- 
vised vain  things  ?  "  When  will  the  world  learn  the  lesson  that  the 
Galilean  will  ever  conquer,  that  He  will  be  with  His  Church  until  the 
consummation  of  time,  and  that  the  gates  of  hell  will  not  prevail 
against  His  Church  forever? 


XLix.— cbriet  a  r»ere  fftam 

Introduction. — It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  wherever  religion  has 
been  at  a  low  ebb  among  a  people,  that  people  were  possessed  of  a 
very  inferior  standard  of  morality.  Their  ideas  were  lofty  in  propor- 
tion to  their  concepts  of  the  Deity.  Monotheism  has  always  revealed 
a  high  standard  of  thought  and  action.  Idolatry  has  always  been 
accompanied  by  a  degraded  misconception  of  conduct,  even  in  the 
most  elementary  perceptions  of  wrong  and  right.  Barbarism  was  a 
lapse  from  the  saving  primeval  traditions  of  the  race.  It  may  be 
securely  asserted  that  no  barbarism  has  ever  brought  man  down  to 
such  depths  of  iniquity  as  the  lapse  from  Christianity  wherever  it 
has  occurred.  Witness  the  excesses  of  the  French  revolution.  His- 
tory has  still  one  experience  untried.  The  story  has  yet  to  be  written 
of  a  nation  or  a  colony  established  on  the  principles  of  infidelity 
and  inscribing  on  its  labarum,  "  No  God.  No  Christ.  No  religion." 
We  shudder  to  think  of  the  crimes,  of  the  enormities  that  would 
prevail  under  such  a  banner.  We  know  what  atheism  is  productive 
of  in  the  individual.  Fancy  a  nation  of  atheists !  Fancy  a  people  of 
Voltaires,  of  Diderots,  of  Rousseaus  as  leaders  and  their  followers, 
disciples  impregnated  with  their  blasphemies,  with  their  infamous 
views  of  man,  his  origin  and  his  destiny !  Where  would  be  authority, 
law,  order?  How  long  would  such  a  republic  endure?  Is  such  a 
condition  of  affairs  among  the  probabilities  of  the  future?  We 
answer,  Why  not?  And  yet  we  are  compelled  to  say  we  not  only 
hope  not,  but  also  that  we  believe  not.    We  must  remember  that, 

124 


CHRIST   A    MERE    MAN,  125 

though  the  world  forget  God,  God  will  not  forget  the  world.  The 
only  salvation  lies  in  submission  to  Christ,  who  is  not  a  mere  man, 
but  God. 

I.  Emphatically  witnesses  to  this  great  truth  are  the  martyrs.  A 
martyr  is  essentially  a  witness — martyrdom  means  testimony.  When 
we  consider  their  very  large  number,  from  Nero  to  Constantine,  that 
is  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  when  we  consider  the  terrible 
nature  of  their  tortures,  when  we  consider  their  courage,  the  many 
conditions  of  life  in  which  they  moved,  the  manner,  calm  and  joyful, 
in  which  they  suffered,  the  marvels  that  so  frequently  attended  their 
valiant  patience,  the  multitudinous  conversions  which  were  the  fruit 
of  their  sacrifice,  we  can  not  explain  their  conduct  in  any  other  way 
than  that  the  religion  for  which  they  laid  down  their  lives  was  a 
divine  religion,  and  its  Author  divine  as  well.  There  is  very  little 
doubt  as  to  their  number.  It  must  be  admitted  that  they  were  perse- 
cuted through  hatred  for  the  Christian  religion.  They  died,  not 
through  blind  fanaticism.  They  were  clear  eyed  witnesses.  They 
understood  their  creed.  They  submitted  to  all  their  tortures  because 
they  knew  that  Christ  was  God. 

II.  Again  in  confirmation  of  all  our  assertions  we  have  the  won- 
derful change  operated  in  the  world  by  the  introduction  of  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ.  We  know  what  the  world  was  before  Christ  and 
at  the  time  of  His  coming — the  state  of  private  and  public  morals, 
of  the  family,  of  society.  We  have  the  startling  evidence  of  a  sudden 
and  gradually  universal  change  of  thoughts,  ideas,  principles.  We 
have  the  creation  of  a  new  public  conscience.  All  this  proves  divinity, 
for  it  is  impossible  to  adduce  a  single  human  agency  or  a  collection 
of  human  agencies  capable  to  account  for  this  transformation.    Add 


126  APOLOGETICA. 

to  this  the  doctrine  which  Christ  taught.  His  doctrine  was  never 
taught  in  its  entirety  and  in  its  unity  before  His  time.  He  taught 
concerning  the  Father,  God,  and  His  attributes,  concerning  man 
and  the  world.  There  are  His  moral  precepts.  They  are  perfect, 
ideal,  model,  regenerating.  He  was  the  first  to  make  clear  in  His 
own  words  and  through  His  Church  the  nature  of  divine  worship. 
His  doctrine  stands  out  unique  in  presence  of  all  the  doctrines  of  the 
world.  It  moved  the  admiration  of  His  contemporaries,  and  has  com- 
pelled the  wonder  of  all  subsequent  ages.  In  itself  it  is  divine.  And 
He  proved  that  it  was  from  God  and  that  He  was  God.  A  careful 
investigation  will  disprove  the  objections  which  have  been  urged 
from  the  resemblance  between  the  teaching  of  it  and  that  of  other 
religions.  Buddhism,  as  inquirers  pursue  honestly  their  researches, 
Buddhism  ceases  to  be  in  any  way  a  teaching  which  can  lay  claim 
to  the  excellence  of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus.  Let  what  they  like  be 
vindicated  for  Buddhism  or  any  other  "  ism,"  it  still  remains  proven 
that  Christ  is  not  a  mere  man,  but  God. 


L.—Zhcvc  i0  no  leternal  puniebment 

Introduction. — Men,  it  is  a  very  remarkable  fact,  never  quarrel 
with  heaven.  They  are  willing  to  concede  that  there  may  be  beyond 
the  confines  of  this  earth  a  place  where  every  one  will  be  supremely 
happy.  When,  however,  they  are  called  upon  to  admit  that  there  is 
also  a  place  where  God's  creatures  are  to  suffer  unimaginable  and 
unconceivable  pain  forever,  forthwith  they  recoil  and  they  deny. 
But  it  is  very  patent  that  denial  will  not  obliterate  everlasting  penalty, 
no  more  than  the  convict,  by  refusing  to  believe  in  a  penitentiary  or 
a  dungeon,  will  find  himself  free  instead  of  passing  months  or  years 
or  a  lifetime  behind  prison  bars.  No  denial  of  ours  will  change  the 
words  of  Christ.  His  words  are  explicit.  We  find  the  doctrine  of 
everlasting  punishment  emphasized  (Mark  ix.  41-47).  On  this 
occasion  Our  Lord  repeats  three  times  the  statement  of  the  unquench- 
able fire  of  hell  where  the  worm  never  dies.  Some  repudiate  the  idea 
of  hell  being  eternal.  Some  contend  that  on  a  future  day  the  rigors 
of  the  flames  will  be  mitigated  and  that  there  will  be  a  modicum  of 
happiness  introduced.  Others  claim  that  there  will  be  a  new  period 
of  probation  granted  each  sinner  in  eternity.  Others  simply  say 
there  is  no  hell.  We  may  find  it  difiicult  to  prove  from  reason  alone 
that  the  sentence  of  condemnation  will  be  an  eternal  one.  In  this 
case  we  have  to  fall  back  upon  the  divine  and  infallible  teaching  of 
the  Redeemer. 

I.  Whatever  opinion  mentioned  above  may  be  sustained,  this 
answer  is  always  in  order,  that  mere  statement  is  not  proof,  nor  is 

127 


i«8  APOLOGETICA, 

mere  contradiction  a  successful  rebuttal.  St.  Augustine  tells  us  that 
every  one  who  denies  God's  existence  makes  the  denial  because  he  has 
a  reason  for  wishing  God  not  to  be.  Something  similar  may  be 
advanced  regarding  those  who  assert  that  there  is  no  hell,  or,  if  there 
be,  it  is  not  everlasting.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  all  these  individuals 
repudiate  the  dogma  because  their  conscience  makes  them  afraid 
that  in  their  moral  condition  were  they  to  stand  before  God  for  judg- 
ment, they  could  expect  no  other  verdict  than  an  adverse  one.  How- 
ever, be  things  as  they  may,  the  teaching  of  the  Church  is  safer  to 
follow  than  their  denial.  They,  of  course,  advance  some  reasons. 
Let  us  see  what  they  are  worth. 

II.  There  is  no  hell  because  a  punishment  such  as  is  that  pro- 
fessed by  Christianity  is  repugnant  to  the  divine  perfections.  It  can 
not  be  reconciled  with  divine  justice  or  with  divine  goodness.  It  is 
irreconcilable  with  God's  justice  for  the  reason  that  there  is  no  pro- 
portion between  a  crime  committed,  however  great,  and  the  penalty. 
It  is  very  hard  to  decide  as  to  the  proportion.  Yet  we  are  justified  in 
claiming  that  the  one  whose  law  and  whose  dignity  are  offended  by  a 
deliberate  and  grave  wrong  is  infinite.  There  should  be  something 
infinite,  it  seems  to  us,  in  the  retribution.  It  can  not  be  in  the  torture 
itself  inflicted,  because  no  finite  being  could  bear  the  weight  of  an 
infinite  woe  or  pain.  There  appears  to  remain  only  what  we  might 
call  an  external  infinite,  and  that  is  perpetuity  of  duration.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  God's  law  must  have  a  sanction,  and  a  sanction 
commensurate  with  the  importance  of  the  law  and  the  majesty  of 
the  Law  Giver. 

III.  With  regard  to  the  divine  goodness  we  must  keep  in  mind 
that  Grod's  goodness  is  a  perfection,  and  while  it  includes  boundless 


THERE   IS   NO    ETERNAL   PUNISHMENT  129 

mercy  it  excludes  all  vacillation  and  impotent  condescension.  Par- 
don me  if  I  say  that  God  is  good,  but  that  He  is  not  "  goody-goody." 
If  we  carry  the  argument  from  goodness  to  its  limit,  then  there  will 
exist  no  sanction.  In  this  case  God's  goodness  would  be  the  cause 
of  innumerable  disorders,  and  would  render  the  divine  will  of  no 
account  in  the  eyes  of  creatures.  God,  besides,  does  not  punish  as 
if  moved  by  what  we  conceive  as  revenge.  God  hates  only  the  sin, 
and  were  it  possible  to  detach  the  sin  from  the  sinner,  then  He  would 
doom  the  sin  alone.  The  divine  goodness,  by  its  very  nature,  must 
abhor  sin,  must  hate  it  because  it  is  an  attack  upon  all  the  Maker's 
attributes,  and  so  He  must  punish  it,  and  who  can  say  to  Omnipotence 
outraged,  "  Thus  far  and  no  farther  "  ?  It  is  not  so  much  the  length 
of  time  it  takes  to  commit  a  crime  we  have  to  consider,  as  the  ingrati- 
tude of  the  criminal  and  the  ineffable  majesty  of  the  offended  Deity. 


LL— ^bere  Ib  no  leternal  puniebment 

Introduction. — Between  theory  and  fact  there  is  an  immeasurable 
and,  in  many  cases,  an  impassable  space.  The  same  distance  in- 
tervenes between  negation  and  proof.  It  is  very  noticeable  that 
when  a  scientific  theory  is  broached  and  enunciated  only  as  a 
theory,  there  is  always  a  mob  of  sciolists  who  seize  upon  the  hy- 
pothesis and  proclaim  it  as  a  fact,  especially  when  it  in  any  way 
impugns  the  dogmas  of  Christianity.  This  is  evidenced  by  the  one 
time  wide  spread  of  Darwinism  and  Positivism  and  Agnosticism. 
There  are  some  facts  which  scientific  investigation  never  can  touch. 
We  have  in  mind  the  existence  of  the  human  soul,  which  has  been 
contradicted  because  forsooth  the  dissector's  scalpel  has  never  laid 
that  immortal  spark  bare ;  as  if  a  principle  of  life  could  be  found  in 
a  body,  in  which  all  vitality  is  extinct.  This  view  is  applicable  to  the 
protestations  of  those  who  oppugn  the  teaching  of  the  Church  re- 
garding hell.  All  that  they  have  advanced  is  reducible  to  a  negation. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  existence  of  God,  so  in  the  question  of  eternal 
punishment,  not  a  shred  of  proof  is  to  the  fore  against  either  one 
or  other  truth. 

I.  Reason  has  not  disproved  the  everlasting  rigors  of  God's  jus- 
tice against  sin.  Must  sin  be  punished  or  not?  Surely,  every  one 
will  grant  that  unto  crime  there  must  be  meted  out  a  penalty.  This 
penalty  rests  beyond  a  doubt  with  the  lawgiver.  The  legislator  in 
this  case  being  the  Supreme  Legislator,  who  has  not  to  render  an 
account  to  any  one  of  His  decrees,  ought,  at  least,  be  allowed  the 
privilege  to  affix  the  sanction  which  in  His  infinite  wisdom  He 
deems  efficient.     From  other  sources  we  have  the  assurance  that 

130 


THERE    IS   NO    ETERNAL   PUNISHMENT,         131 

His  sentence  under  given  circumstances  will  be  eternal  doom.  Is 
this  sentence  too  severe,  too  disproportionate?  Severe,  it  certainly 
is ;  unjustly  severe  who  dares  say  ?  Disproportionate  ?  Again  who 
will  have  the  temerity  to  make  this  assertion?  On  what  basis  will 
he  ground  the  accusation?  Is  it  not  within  the  limits  of  reason  to 
say  that  God  must  determine  a  punishment  which  by  its  very  nature 
is  sufficient  to  deter  man  from  crime  ?  Independently  of  other  legiti- 
mate considerations,  are  we  not  obliged  to  say  that  the  human  race 
would  stop  at  no  infraction  of  the  divine  law  were  the  mulct 
not  the  eternal  forfeiture  of  happiness  ?  Even  the  knowledge  of  the 
consequences  does  not  prevent  the  violation  of  the  law.  Yet  as  far 
as  punishment  is  viewed  as  a  deterrent,  hell  from  this  standpoint 
seems  to  be  inevitable.  We  expect  not  too  much  when  we  affirm 
that  certainly  there  is  more  in  favor  of,  in  our  philosophy, 
than    against    eternal    punishment. 

Let  us  (II.)  subjoin  here,  from  another  repertory  of  argument, 
but  only  as  corroborative,  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation.  The  sacrifice 
of  Christ  was  necessary  for  our  salvation.  Is  it  safe  to  infer  that  an 
infinite  victim  was  demanded  unless  there  was  a  forfeit  in  some  way 
infinite  to  be  canceled?  Would  the  shedding  of  blood  divine  have 
been  justified  were  there  only  question,  as  far  as  man  is  concerned, 
of  liberating  the  race  from  temporal  disaster?  Undoubtedly  there 
is  the  cloud  of  mystery  hanging  over  this  puzzling  problem.  Faith 
will  penietrate  the  cloud.  Reason  must  simply  bow  down  and  adore. 
I  know  God  is  just.  He  makes  a  compact  with  temptation  that  we 
will  not  be  tried  beyond  our  strength,  and  He  will  not  punish  beyond 
our  deserts.  In  the  uncertainty,  what  should  reason  suggest?  Bet- 
ter, our  sane  sense  will  tell  us  to  be  on  the  safe  side.  Security  is 
where  the  Church  is.  Let  us  pray  the  prayer  of  St.  Augustine: 
**  Lord,  try  us ;  punish  us  here — only  save  us  in  eternity." 


Lih—Zbcvc  i6  no  eternal  punlebment 

Introduction, — Protestantism  is  protean  in  its  nature.  Its  his- 
tory is  the  history  of  mutability  and  variation.  Little  by  little  it 
extruded  all  Catholic  doctrine,  either  expressly  or  by  implication. 
In  one  or  other  of  its  forms  it  denied  purgatory  and  then  hell,  and 
in  recent  years  there  has  been  proclaimed  not  the  purgatory  of  tra- 
dition, but  a  parody  or  burlesque  thereof.  The  large  charter  of  liberty 
granted  to  all  its  votaries  makes  not  only  possible  but  inevitable  the 
introduction  of  views  which  reflect  not  credit  but  ridicule  on  the 
minds  of  the  abettors.  What  is  there  essential  to  Christianity  which 
has  not  been  denied  by  leaders  outside  the  Church?  Free  to  use 
the  Bible  as  they  please,  a  bishop  attacks  its  veracity;  free  to  find 
in  the  Bible  whatever  caprice  suggested,  some  of  their  preachers 
denied  the  Trinity,  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  the  eternal  sanction 
of  God's  law.  In  the  rebound  we  have  the  opinion  of  those  who 
hold  that  there  is  another  life,  but  that  in  that  life  man  has  another 
chance.  If  he  profit  by  this  new,  unauthorized,  unfounded  dispen- 
sation, his  will  be  an  eternity  of  bliss  unalloyed;  if  he  does  not, 
then  divine  justice  must  take  its  course. 

I.  We  are  unable  to  see  how  it  can  be  logically  advanced  that 
the  time  of  probation  extends  beyond  the  limits  of  this  life.  We 
ask  where  and  what  is  the  proof  ?  It  is  not  mentioned  in  Scripture. 
It  is  not  found  among  the  traditionary  utterances  of  Christ  or  of 
the  apostles.    Moreover,  it  is  not  an  intuitive  or  a  priori  truth.    Vox 

133 


THERE   IS   NO    ETERNAL   PUNISHMENT.         133 

et  praeterea  nihil.  Let  us  suppose  that  after  death  would  begin  a 
probationary  period.  What  about  the  moral  law  and  moral  order 
here  ?  What  regard  would  the  legislator  evince  were  such  the  case  ? 
It  would  be  a  declaration  on  his  part  that  the  natural  law  here  was 
of  very  little  significance  in  his  eyes.  It  would  be  simply  throw- 
ing all  integrity  to  the  winds.  There  would  be  no  inducement  to 
practise  virtue.  The  world  is  bad  enough  as  it  is ;  what  would  it  be 
were  there  this  so-called  post  mortem  probation?  To  support  it, 
is  insulting  to  God.  Certainly  this  seems  to  be  the  very  strongest 
kind  of  an  argument  against  such  a  theory,  for  theory  only  it  is, 
were  it  even  worthy  of  the  name.  It  would  be  very  difficult  to 
imagine  an  opinion  more  repugnant  to  the  ordinary  views  of  men 
upon  such  momentous  questions  as  public  honesty  and  domestic  and 
social  uprightness. 

II.  Another  class  of  "  anti-sheolists  "  are  what  one  might  term 
spiritual  "  Nihilists."  Their  contention  is  that  the  sanction  of  the 
law  consists  in  annihilation.  They  hold  that  eternal  unconscious- 
ness will  be  the  penalty.  The  same  query  is  again,  as  always, 
forced  upon  us.  What  is  the  basis  of  their  system  of  ethics  ?  What 
is  their  proof  ?  Who  is  their  prophet  ?  Who  their  Messias  ?  There 
is  blasphemy  in  this  taking  the  punishment  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
Creator  and  placing  it  in  the  will  of  the  creature.  First,  annihila^ 
tion  would  not  be  a  penalty.  Penalty  supposes  pain.  Where  there 
is  eternal  unconsciousness  there  is  no  pain.  They  contradict  them- 
selves, saying  that  crime  deserves  punishment,  and  then  affixing 
annihilation  as  the  sentence.  But  it  is  needless  to  proceed.  It  has 
been  a  fixed  belief  everywhere  and  at  all  times  that  the  soul  will 
survive  the  body,  and  that  there  are  rewards  for  virtue  and  punish- 
ment for  crime.    Plato,  in  his  Phaedrus,  having  determined  the  im- 


134  APOLOGETICA. 

mortality  of  the  soul,  says  that  after  the  separation  souls  will  be 
led  to  a  supreme  tribunal  in  order  "  to  be  judged  as  to  whether  they 
lived  well  or  not.  Those  who  are  found  incurable  on  account  of  the 
magnitude  of  their  enormities,  their  many  colossal  sacrileges,  their 
murders,  and  inexcusable  iniquities,  or  other  crimes,  them  fate  will 
cast  into  Tartarus,  whence  they  will  escape  never."  Thanks  sincere 
and  incessant  be  ours,  that  our  faith  has  erected  in  the  world  the 
dogma  of  an  eternal  hell  for  the  impenitent — a  dogma  that  warns, 
deters,  and  saves. 

Note. — The  matter  for  preparing  the  foregoing  sketches  has  been  taken 
from  Hurter,  S J. ;  Devivier,  S.J. ;  Hettinger,  and  other  philosophers  and 
theologians. 


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